I went to fill up my oil today and noticed a very small amount of creamy mayo like substance on the bottom of the cap, there wasn't any on the dipstick when I pulled that out

I remember reading something about short journeys causing it, and I do a lot of short journeys so it had me worried

What I'd like to know is, is this going to damage my car, is it already damaged, and how can I fix the problem?

Its the car in my sig btw

Thanks in advance

I would be tempted to change the oil, but thats just me. Lots of very short journeys is bad for any car. Most of the time a milky oil means the oil is contaminated with water. Worst case could mean headgasket has gone.

Exactly the above.

Keep a close eye on this mate

As above, "mayo" is caused by water in the oil.

Since you say the dipstick is fine, it's probably just a leaky oil filler cap. Replace the cap and change the oil, then see if it continues.

Do you do very little mileage?

I had a full service including oil & filter, and cambelt on the 25th november last year, i will keep an eye on it for now, since buying the car (April last year) Ive put about 6000 miles on it, bringing the car to 48000 miles overall last week

Having read other bits on here about this, am I right in thinking that taking the car for a long motorway journey could help get some moisture out of the oil?

Thanks for the replies

Grainge16 said:

I had a full service including oil & filter, and cambelt on the 25th november last year, i will keep an eye on it for now, since buying the car (April last year) Ive put about 6000 miles on it, bringing the car to 48000 miles overall last week

Having read other bits on here about this, am I right in thinking that taking the car for a long motorway journey could help get some moisture out of the oil?

Thanks for the replies

Click to expand...

as far as i know once there is water in the oil, its impossibly to get rid of it - although im glad to be wrong on this one

Well I went out to get a photo of it for you, and sod's law, there's no sign if any mayo on the cap, although it has been driven a bit since I first noticed this morning

This morning when I saw it, about half/a third of the cap was covered in it, and it was quite thick. I'll keep checking daily and get a photo up when It's back and crappy again, if it happens again, fingers crossed it won't

Could it be possible that when the garage did the service and changed the oil, they used oil that had been sitting around open for a while so its had chance to pick moisture up?

Its a 1.2 its fairly normal in this weather, moisture from the combustion and the atmosphere condenses in the cool of the rocker box cover.....

a nice long drive will clear most of it if your paranoid i'd clean the rocker box breather out and the ICV



https://www.fiatforum.com/grande-punto-guides/262269-breather-hose-replacement-1-2-1-4-8v.html


https://www.fiatforum.com/stilo-guides/83260-cleaning-your-inlet-control-valve.html



Just keep a eye on the coolent level just in case

Thats great, thanks for that Andy

So its not going to damage the car if i drive it then, as long as I keep an eye on the coolant?

It shouldn't do any harm you might find you start getting tick over problems (as in the above stilo guide)

I had to unblock my 1996 1.1l ford fiesta's breather almost every other week in winter (never used a drop of coolant either)


Once the car gets up to temp the water will evaporate and clear off up the breather hose and be "burned off" along with any oil held in suspension

I wouldn't worrie too much, as above said just keep and eye on the coolant, short jurneys do cause the 'mayo' effect but if your not loosing power and the car still pulls etc just clean it out when you do oil, also clean your breather bet that will be packed of mayo haha