Caramel coloured gunk in oil filler cap

longwalks1

Am I worrying over nothing? There must be thousands of people who use their car to commute and only do a few miles a day?

AdrianC

britishboy wrote: »

There must be thousands of people who use their car to commute and only do a few miles a day?

Yes, there are.

It doesn't mean that sort of use is good for the car, though.

longwalks1

Yes guys oil and filter was changed a couple of months ago

Strider590

britishboy wrote: »

Yes guys oil and filter was changed a couple of months ago

When was the coolant last flushed? It does go off and it also hates being mixed with different types, this can lead to a header tank full of white/yellow foam (not cream).

reddwarf2002

Bit of a long story but...

Recently helped a neighbour buy a Corsa from a trader. The engine felt as though it was running a little hot (as the cooling fan kept coming on). It also felt as though the engine was misfiring a little - perhaps head gasket failure (although I'm not an expert by any means).

I mentioned this to the trader and he re-assured me that it's just how Corsa's are and in any case it comes with a 12 month AA warranty. I laughed and said it's not worth the paper it's written on. He went onto show me how much he was paying for the AA warranties on all his cars (something like £20k) and why would he bother if they were no good?

The problem with the Corsa was that there is no temp guage so I couldn't really say with 100% certainty that it was overheating rather than how Corsa's ran. I advised my neighbour to perhaps look at other cars but she was in a rush and just wanted to buy one. So I told the trader that if there was any problems with the engine relating to the overheating he would have to fix it. He agreed and my neighbour paid the money.

A couple of days later I went and checked the oil filler cap and it had caramel coloured gunk on it. The coolant resevoir had some black debris/bits. We took it to the dealer and had their mechanic look at it and they agreed there was a problem. He asked my neighbour to claim on the AA cover and they would get it fixed.

After the repair my neighbour said that they replaced a valve (probably burnt exhaust valve) which the dealer showed her. The chances are they probably replaced the head gasket too but she didn't say anything else. It cost the dealer about £450 which they probably recovered from the AA warranty - wrongly in a way as the fault was apparent before the sale. But most importantly she got her car fixed without being given the run around which I was extremely surprised about.

[EDIT - just to say after the repair the car ran so smoothly, almost like a brand new car]

Back to the OP - is your car running smoothly? If not I would be a little concerned.

AdrianC

reddwarf2002 wrote: »

The problem with the Corsa was that there is no temp guage so I couldn't really say with 100% certainty that it was overheating rather than how Corsa's ran.

A ten quid IR thermometer will tell you with much more accuracy than a dash temp gauge will.

After the repair my neighbour said that they replaced a valve (probably burnt exhaust valve) which the dealer showed her. The chances are they probably replaced the head gasket too

It's impossible to replace a valve without changing the HG.

Marktheshark

Of it has an oil cooler these are worth checking as they can cause oil water mixing.

Alter_ego

AdrianC wrote: »

It's impossible to replace a valve without changing the HG.

Unwise but not impossible

fred246

I noticed the same on my last car when it was about 9 years old. I panicked and thought the worst. Nearly PX-ed it. Changing the oil does not get rid of it. My car was very low mileage towards the end. Kept the car for another 8 years. Caramel turned out to be harmless.

AdrianC

Alter_ego wrote: »

Unwise but not impossible

Yes, OK, strictly true. You could remove the head to replace the valve, and reuse the gasket. But there ain't no way it'd be right afterwards.

I s'pose there's also option B - the monobloc option... But I doubt many mechanics under about 130yrs old are particularly familiar with them. And, even in their day, the cylinder-and-block casting tended to be removable from the crankcase, and they did tend to be sidevalves. I don't even want to know how hard replacing an OHV through the crankcase would be...