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water vapour/white smoke & mayo buildup

3K views 13 replies 7 participants last post by  leewurf 
#1 ·
hi,

hope someone can help, just noticed recently (not sure if its always done it) that i seem to get a lot of vapour/white smoke out the exhaust, not just from startup but car could have been running 10 mins then i park up and if i hit the gas lots of white smoke or vapour comes out the back.

i have also noticed the browny/tan coloured substance in the oil cap 'mayo'. i cleaned it out a few days ago and checked again today and theres a build up again. i have read that it could be water mixing with oil but i have checked my water reservoir and i am not losing any water at all and the dipstick is clean its just on the oil filler cap i get the substance.

i do mainly short trips around town as my place of work is only a mile or 2 from where i live, could it just be that.

as i say no water is being lost and the actual oil seems clear just oil filler cap seems to show 'mayo'

thanks
 
#2 ·
Cold weather and short trips are causing the effects you are seeing. As long as you are not losing water or burning excessive oil you have nothing to worry about. The mayo on your cap is caused by condensation when warm oil hits cold metal. A good run will make it disappear.:)
 
#3 ·
thanks for getting back to me.

no don't appear to be losing any water at all. oil level seems fine as well, is there any way of telling if its burning oil apart from checking dipstick?

should i keep cleaning it off every couple of weeks from the oil cap, or is it ok to leave it on there?

quick question regarding temp as well. my car warms up and then hits 90, once it hits 90 temp goes down to around 75 then goes back up to around 80, it then holds at around 80, if in traffic it goes back up to 90 again but when moving stays around 80. is this normal? never goes above 90 on the dial.
 
#7 ·
Not really any other 'easy' way to check if its burning oil. Checking the dipstick level is pretty conclusive though, if its not going down you can be pretty sure its not burning oil!

My 156 JTD 20v does exactly the same with the temp. have you tried driving without the heaters on at all?
 
#5 ·
Hi, my temp gauge fluctuates just like yours and sits around 80 most of the time, before i had the water pump
and thermostat changed it used to sick solid at 90..
I notice a small amount of mayo under my cap if i let the engine warm up for 5 mins before driving off on a cold
morning, its been like that since i bought the car 4 years ago, uses no oil or water, still drives very well...
I am not worried about it, its just condensation..
 
#14 ·
My V6 has the same symptoms - white smoke until it's warmed up, mayo under the oil cap but no water loss. When I first got it the water temp used to stabilise about a quarter of the way up the gauge an I put the white smoke down to condensation as it was never really getting up to full temperature. Changed the stat and it gets warmer now but will still smoke when cold. It did improve considerably when we had a few milder days a week or two ago. I see other cars the same and they are all "older" cars so it may just be a symptom of age and the cold weather.
I had a Mondeo that burned a lot of oil and trust me, if your car is burning oil you can really smell it and the smoke doesn't disappear into the air in the same way as water vapour does.
 
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