Checking oil – yellow substance

[mjwscorpio]

Just checked oil and needed to top up. When I looked inside I noticed a yellow slightly thick substance around the lip and the oil cap. Any ideas on why this has built up?

[6C4GTS]

Too many short journeys in cold weather.......common this time of year.

[mjwscorpio]

Thanks for the quick reply, I didn’t know that it could cause this. My wife does use it for work and although it is garaged overnight it is only a twenty minute drive with a stop over to drop our daughter at school. Could this cause any long term damage?

[Trev450]

As already pointed out this is quite common with short trips. The simple cure is to take the car for a good, hard blast every now and again.

[redback911]

I like this thread. I wonder if it constitutes admissible evidence.

"Well m'lord, after we clocked his car at 115mph in a 60mph zone, the accused then argued that e'had been told to [blast] this here motor to avoid accumulation of a sticky yellow substance."

Edited by redback911 on Tuesday 3rd January 17:35

Edited by redback911 on Tuesday 3rd January 17:36

[CrazyTurboBeast]

Its small quantities of water ingress, perfectly normal as pointed out with short trips.

Don't worry unless you find 'salad cream' in there!

Such a pity you couldn't cure more things by taking the car out for a hard run!

You will probably notice a difference in the oil guage (also see owners manual) it will read higher when the car is used on short runs because of water ingress and if you take it out for a long hard run it will read accurately (ie lower).