White gunk

[Birdy92]

My 02 corsa gets white gunk under oil filler cap no smoking out exhaust no water loss or oil loss and drives fine I've read its head gasket but bloke in halfords said it's probably just condensation coz car only does about 10 miles a day (work) in the week, whose right??

[Emanresu]

White gunk can be an indicator of a bad head gasket but if the water level isn't going down, it's more likely to be condensation.

[Birdy92]

Phew thanks

[Peanut Gallery]

Agree, my car gets some white gunk during the week (only 4 miles a day) - clears up when given a decent run.

Turn off the interior fan, let the engine get up to temp before warming the inside of the car up.

[E-bmw]

Peanut Gallery said:

Agree, my car gets some white gunk during the week (only 4 miles a day) - clears up when given a decent run.

Turn off the interior fan, let the engine get up to temp before warming the inside of the car up.

But that won't make any difference will it?

The 'stat doesn't open until the engine is pretty much up to temperature, that is when the water is allowed to start to get into the rest of the system, so surely it will make little or no difference to how quickly the engine warms up.

[Evoluzione]

E-bmw said:

Peanut Gallery said:

Agree, my car gets some white gunk during the week (only 4 miles a day) - clears up when given a decent run.

Turn off the interior fan, let the engine get up to temp before warming the inside of the car up.

But that won't make any difference will it?

The 'stat doesn't open until the engine is pretty much up to temperature, that is when the water is allowed to start to get into the rest of the system, so surely it will make little or no difference to how quickly the engine warms up.

The heater circuit is used all the time, i.e. before the 'stat is open.

[Birdy92]

Thanks for replies no water or oil loss so hopefully condensation will just keep eye on levels

[Peanut Gallery]

Evoluzione said:

E-bmw said:

Peanut Gallery said:

Agree, my car gets some white gunk during the week (only 4 miles a day) - clears up when given a decent run.

Turn off the interior fan, let the engine get up to temp before warming the inside of the car up.

But that won't make any difference will it?

The 'stat doesn't open until the engine is pretty much up to temperature, that is when the water is allowed to start to get into the rest of the system, so surely it will make little or no difference to how quickly the engine warms up.

The heater circuit is used all the time, i.e. before the 'stat is open.

Just to say yes, heater circuit in use all the time. If the heater is turned on the car can get to work and the temp gauge is still stuck firmly on the cold stop, if the heater is turned off the car MIGHT get halfway to operating temp.

(Yes, at this distance a car is NOT the best answer, but you try telling that to a pregnant SWMBO)

[E-bmw]

OK, I stand corrected, I thought otherwise, although the difference may be minimal as you say.

[GreenV8S]

Might be worth considering either a block heater or an electric fan / heater for the cabin if you drive it regularly over such short distances. I have got into the habit of warming it up with a fan heater for cold winter days, and it makes a big difference not having to scrape the ice off and sit in a cold car for those first few miles.

[Piersman2]

Birdy92 said:

My 02 corsa gets white gunk under oil filler cap no smoking out exhaust no water loss or oil loss and drives fine I've read its head gasket but bloke in halfords said it's probably just condensation coz car only does about 10 miles a day (work) in the week, whose right??

Don't worry about it, my lad's Corsa used to have loads of 'mayonaise' under the filler cap, especially by the end of winter; a sympton of short journeys on cold mornings and condensation mixing in with the oil.

Come the summer it all slowly disappeared away again.

[paintman]

Piersman2 said:

Birdy92 said:

My 02 corsa gets white gunk under oil filler cap no smoking out exhaust no water loss or oil loss and drives fine I've read its head gasket but bloke in halfords said it's probably just condensation coz car only does about 10 miles a day (work) in the week, whose right??

Don't worry about it, my lad's Corsa used to have loads of 'mayonaise' under the filler cap, especially by the end of winter; a sympton of short journeys on cold mornings and condensation mixing in with the oil.

Come the summer it all slowly disappeared away again.

^^^^This. Mayo in the filler cap is not the surefire indicator of head gasket problems that many claim it to be & I sometimes wonder how many have had their trousers pulled down for unnecessary work by the unscrupulous.
Also one of the reasons why cars that only do short journeys go through exhausts faster than those that do long journeys as the short journeys don't get the system hot enough to boil the water off.

[Birdy92]

Thanks again people won't worry now lol just keep eye on levels

[Piersman2]

Just to add to the earlier post I made.

I must admit when my lad first pointed out the emulsified mess under his oil filler cap and I had a look I was surprised at just how much was in there and feared the worst. But back in the day I've had a few cars that would do this , an MG Montego being the one I particularly recall, and told him just to keep a close eye on the water levels for a couple of weeks.

If you're not losing any water the chances are that mayo in the oil is being caused by condensation especially during winter and if you're doing short journeys each day.

Conversely, mayo in your coolant is usually NOT a good sign as it indicates oil getting out of the engine, as I found on my Boxster when I couldn't work out where all it's oil was going after just a few hundred miles. It turns out it was getting through a crack in the cylinder head into the coolant. I only realised something was desparately wrong when I spotted that the coolant tank was solid mayo and draining the coolant out revealed that about half of the coolant flowing around was a sloppy mayo mix. Not good.