Mayonnaise on dipstick

[griffter]

Picked up the new car on Saturday, haven't yet given it a good run However:

A bit of mayonnaise on the dipstick - wipe the dipstick, replace, remove and there's more mayonnaise. Mostly clear oil, but just a dab of mayonnaise.

Temps c80 deg and steady.

Header tank is clear - no foam, no froth, just clean coolant.

Nothing untoward on the oil filler cap of visible under through the oil filler hole.

Could this be early HGF? Or just condensation in the dipstick tube?

53 plate 111S. Cheers...

[odyssey2200]

at a guess, it's just condensation!

oil change and good run!

[Gad-Westy]

I'd put that down to condensation. Do you know if the car has been used much recently, if not, even more likely to be just condensation.

Keep on eye on the header tank just to be on the safe side though.

[fergus]

change the oil and filter after a decent run and also possibly invest in a hydrocarbons tester for the coolant. Better to be safe than sorry.

[eowen]

I'd be tempted to get it checked - better to sort this before it becomes HGF.

[chris7676]

Either it's HGF or not, it won't turn into HGF - would be a result of it, not the cause.

[eowen]

true - but before it leads to failure and other more expensive damage.

[Sam_68]

chris7676 said:

Either it's HGF or not, it won't turn into HGF - would be a result of it, not the cause.

If it's condensation, it won't turn into HGF, for sure.

But if it's the beginnings of a HGF, it could get worse and cause more damage than it would if caught early, as Eowen says. If it is HGF, it certainly won't get better.

If there's no coolant loss or overheating, hopefully it's nothing more than a bit of condensation in a car that hasn't seen much use, but for the trivial cost of a chemical test, I'd be inclined to get it checked - for peace of mind, if nothing else.

[fergus]

Sam_68 said:

chris7676 said:

Either it's HGF or not, it won't turn into HGF - would be a result of it, not the cause.

If it's condensation, it won't turn into HGF, for sure.

But if it's the beginnings of a HGF, it could get worse and cause more damage than it would if caught early, as Eowen says. If it is HGF, it certainly won't get better.

If there's no coolant loss or overheating, hopefully it's nothing more than a bit of condensation in a car that hasn't seen much use, but for the trivial cost of a chemical test, I'd be inclined to get it checked - for peace of mind, if nothing else.

hence my suggestion of buying a hydrocarbon tester. Will cost you a lot less than the dealer doing the same thing.

[Sam_68]

fergus said:

hence my suggestion of buying a hydrocarbon tester. Will cost you a lot less than the dealer doing the same thing.

Dunno. It must be about 5 years since I had a chemical test done, and at that time it cost me a tenner.

If you can find yourself a friendly MOT inspector, they'll do a HC sniffer test for the price of a beer.

Chemical test tends to be more reliable than sniffer test, though, since it will show up even relatively tiny amounts of exhaust gasses dissolved in the coolant, whereas a HC tester will only pick it up if the blow is bad enough for gasses to be bubbling up through the coolant... head gasket failures in their early stages may be intermittent, blowing gas only at high combustion pressures (ie. not at idle or revving off-load, when you're testing them!).