Possible reasons for a creamy oil cap ?

[joelk]

Hi there,

I'm about to buy a 456 - but one I have seen had a creamy coffee like residue on the underside of the oil cap.

I heard this normally means there's a problem with the head gasget. Or - are there other possible explainations for this? (seeing it's a V12). The sales people suggested it was due to condensation build up as it had often been used for only very short journeys.

Many thanks...

[robp]

If its the head gasket its easy to check, get them to do a compression test.

If its only a small amount of residue on the filler cap i would just say its down to short journeys, engines dont like em!

[456mgt]

joelk said:

The sales people suggested it was due to condensation build up as it had often been used for only very short journeys. Many thanks...

This is true. I had the same thing happen with my car about a year ago, rang the service people and got the same answer. If you remove the residue with a rag and take it on a good run, it goes away. Haven't had it occur since I've been using it almost exclusively on long runs.