A tad-bit paranoid (White residue of oil cap)

[R-Bisch]

So I live in Chicago, with freezing cold winters. I noticed some sludgy white residue on my oil cap a little while ago and went to Jiffy Lube to get a engine flush and new oil. Upon there advice I started letting my car warm up ALOT longer (10-15 mins) before setting off for school and didn't notice anything for awhile. The problem I have now is that the white stuff is back and now a little is appearing on my dip stick as well :frown:. I have contacted multiple VW dealerships and all said that it is normal but I don't know... What are your guy's thoughts? I am a little skeptical about this just being "normal" and "okay" I dont know maybe I'm just paranoid? :iono:

Here are some pictures (follow link http://golfmkv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37042&highlight=white)

 

[danger dan]

its normal, because the valve cover is plastic it lets some condensation happen in there when its cold, all the water makes its way up to your oil car.

run your car either really hard or on the highway a while and you will notice it go away. ive seen it on my cap on cool days too.

 

[oatmeals]

/argree

It is normal and will go away by itself.

 

[07GTI-2.0T]

normal

 

[good vs bad]

It doesn't take very much moisture to make that creamy stuff.
It looks to be condensation to me.
One way of finding out is to run the car long enough to vaporize the moisture in the oil. (Get it to turn to steam)
Then you'd have to run the car some more to have the steam "seep" through the PCV system and eventually out of the tailpipe.

You're not being paranoid :biggrin: as its a legitimate concern. "We're not supposed to have water in our oil"
right, but what we aren't told is that we also have large cavities of air in our engine block and that air holds moisture.
The engine is made up of different materials, iron, aluminum, plastics, rubber etc and those materials heat up at different rates.
The iron block heats the oil relatively quickly and it doesn't dissipate the heat as well as aluminum or even plastics.
Any moisture in the block cavity is heated and rises to the upper levels where is meets cooler parts and condenses. This keeps happening all the way up to the oil cap.

With this occurring, you'll see oil on the filler cap, in the PCV system and even in the crankcase if the engine isn't allowed to get hot throughout the whole and sustain that "hot" temp long enough to evaporate the moisture faster than it's being drawn in.

This will take some time. The temp gauge is not indicative of how hot the whole engine is including the air cavities.
So once the gauge reads "normal" take the car out and flog it a bit (nothing illegal) and/or take an hour or longer drive through the back-lands.

Do that anytime you see moisture/creme.:w00t:

 

[R-Bisch]

Alright sounds like a I get to spend a some more time with my baby =). Quick question, How long should I let my car sit and run? Normally I let it run until the temp gauge is at normal (cold days, about 15 mins) but hearing all of this I'm kind of uncertain. Thanks

 

[SoNgMaN]

shouldn't have to sit and let it warm up just take it easy until it has warmed up.

 

[R-Bisch]

Alright. Well I got rid of the residue =). It took three days but it gone. Here is what I did...
Day 1= Let it run for a half hour after driving it around for an hour
Day 2= Drove it harder than usual for a good half hour (highway
Day 3= Ran it for 45 minutes at saw water dripping from the tailpipe =/

But hey, its all gone now so I am HAPPY