Hi guys, hope you all had a lovely Christmas, I did until this morning!

Was driving yesterday and took a corner rather quickly and oil pressure light came on. I only had 400 meters to drive but it went straight off after the turn so obviously just running low rather then empty!

so when I had chance this morning I topped oil up, dipstick had 3-4mm of oil on, popped the cap to oil filler pipe, burnt brown gunk on the edge of the cap and light brown "phlegm" on all the inside of the pipe.
topped up with half litre of oil and left to sink for a few moments before checking the dipstick, now there's 2-2 1/2 inches of oil on the stick!

Am I right in assuming this is a head gasket failure, I've had no other issues, white smoke/oil in coolant or coolant leaks, I know I have a slight oil leak from the rocker cover but nothing drastic! I must admit I only do short journeys, sometimes only 3-4 miles commuting a day.

To top it off my Mrs MGZR didnt fancy disengaging the immobiliser so didn't fancy taking me to work either! just had to pay £40 for a 2 mile taxi ride!!!!!

All sounds perfectly normal, and typical of short journeys. Just check the oil level weekly, as they do then to use a bit of oil.

Short journey. Condensation so a bit of gunk is normal. Cylinder compression test if your worried.

What would be the reason for the oil being so high up the dipstick? I assumed water in the sump? Is this gunk something I need to clean or will it to with a few good runs?
Thanks chaps

I do not know what engine you got but 3 to 4 miles a day without a monthly hi rev motorway run, it can only be bad all around for the engine. Gone are the days of buying a car owned by a grandmother.
My MOT guy battled to get my emissions test to pass. Having a JTD he told me to get on the autobahn and for at least 10 minutes drive at a constant 2500rpm or more. So I got the place where I could drive at 140 kph (130speed limit) in 4th gear at 2500rpm.
No more smoke or emission problems.

Do a oil and filter change first.
What colour is the oil on your dipstick?

It's a 1.6 dynamic. Forgot to mention. I at least a 20 mile trip once a week, usually motorway speeds. I just noticed I have shiny flakes on top of my coolant in the tank, and it seems to have turn a slight shade of brown rather then pink, the car was stood for a year or so with coolant left in so I imagine this is just a dirty build up in the tank! The oils usual colour nothing else out of the ordinary really.

Well after no oil change and the car sitting around the usual colour should be black. Any other colour then I assume you have a problem. It should be honey clear or black. Brown would indicate a problem.
Time for a service, I would think.

Ok then guys, just got in my car to move it to the garage, car starting fine no problems, tappets made the usual noise but stopped after a second or two, but the engine seems to be juddering severely, almost like driving over gravel, would this point to a further issue as I know the engine mounts are fine and this has only started today?

FSJay said:

Ok then guys, just got in my car to move it to the garage, car starting fine no problems, tappets made the usual noise but stopped after a second or two, but the engine seems to be juddering severely, almost like driving over gravel, would this point to a further issue as I know the engine mounts are fine and this has only started today?

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Uneven running/tickover is definitely a symptom of headgasket failure,which i suffered recently but i also had the white smoke and coolant/oil mix,
it got a lot worse very quickly over 2 or 3 miles after i saw the first symptoms when the temp gauge shot up.

Yesh sounds like it's smoke. What's you gonna do with it?
Still recommend get it checked to be sure.