White gunk on oil dipstick

stumpjumper

I'd be more concerned about the 'tapping' and the garage putting oil thickener in your car. The 9-5 is very prone to sludging and the last thing you want to do is thicken the oil any more! My worry here would be that the knocking is engine damage caused by oil starvation when the strainer in the sump blocks up. It's best practice to change the oil at least every 6000 miles on these cars and only use fully synthetic oil and genuine filters and definately no additives or flushes.

The mayo may be a separate issue, do you do low miles? If so the mayo issue is a common one and the car just needs a good run out. Head gasket faliure is uncommon on these cars.

Visit https://www.saabscene.com for better advice than I can give you.

goldspanners

gordikin wrote: »

It's called head gasket mayo....unfortunately!

its not. its called emulsified oil. and doesn't always mean the head gasket or even the oil cooler ( if fitted) as lots have mentioned above your comment this can be caused by short trips not allowing engine to heat up and burn of condensation.

don't scaremonger.

if its loosing coolant and showing the emulsified oil under oil cap or on dipstick,and possibly overheating, then testing the head gasket would be a priority.

trixxi

thanks for your replies.

no the car is not overheating and the coolant is not going down. the temp guage is sitting at norm.

normallly the car does high miles and we had this when we were driving loads as well.

i think the garage used semi synthetic oil, would this cause this??

whenever we have put the car into the garage it comes out with another prob, hubby was watching when they did last oil change and said to owner he didnt think boy had changed filter, he went out and checked came back saying the boy had changed it, but what do we know?


Goldspanners... we are a bit worried it may be head gasket as hubby needs car for work, so this would not be good.

not sure what else we can do?

mollycat

Try not to worry...i've had a few cars with "mayo" on dipstick and filler cap.

Unless you have other symptoms as described above it wont be HGF.

Just go on using and enjoying your car.

goldspanners

trixxi wrote: »

Goldspanners... we are a bit worried it may be head gasket as hubby needs car for work, so this would not be good.

not sure what else we can do?

you could get the cooling system pressure tested,this would show up a faulty head gasket.(or oil cooler if it has one)
ive seen this ( mostly on older VWs) problem go for ages without any problem, regular oil changes help.

trixxi

Thanks wil suggest this to hubby

cyclonebri1

To be honest I think your car is FUBARed. Oil thickener?, flushing oil? :eek:

The death knoll for all engines.

Time to put hand in pocket and get something serviceable :T

calebdylan

it may due to corrosion some of the dust or impurities stayed inside it for long time causing many problems you need to clean it

trixxi

how do we go about cleaning it???

cyclone.... death knoll for all engines??? what do you mean??? get something serviceable?? do you mean buy a new car??

cyclonebri1

trixxi wrote: »

how do we go about cleaning it???

cyclone.... death knoll for all engines??? what do you mean??? get something serviceable?? do you mean buy a new car??

What I mean mate is that the symptoms you describe, ie, rattley engine, crud in the head etc are all symptomatic of an engine that is past it's best.

The fact that the garage resorted to short term chemical solutions kind of seals it for me,

9 years old?, not too old at all, but an engine get be shot at far earlier than that,

Look, do the sums, the value against what it owes tou, then make a choice,