paste on under side of oil filler cap

shaunthesheep · Post by **shaunthesheep** » 31 Oct 2002, 21:11

i've just checked my oil level, topped it up & water as well. did notice that the underside of my oil filled cap has got a beige coloured paste lurking inside it.
the water level was low, the oil level was just above the 'min' mark, what could becausing this paste??? <img src=icon_smile_sad.gif border=0 align=middle>
xantia 1.6l sx 8v
very concerned
dom <img src=icon_smile_sad.gif border=0 align=middle>

Dave Burns · Post by **Dave Burns** » 31 Oct 2002, 22:10

It can be a natural occurance if you do alot of short journeys, where the engine is rarely at operating temperature for a sustained amount of time.
Blocked breather tubes and valves.
It can be a pointer to worn cylinder bores and/or piston rings, or something much more sinister like head gasket trouble.
If its losing water and you can't see where its going then it doesn't sound very good, look for oil in the coolant and water in the sump.
Dave

shaunthesheep · Post by **shaunthesheep** » 31 Oct 2002, 23:22

cheers dave, i did notice when i did the rocker cover gasket that some of the breather hose's were blocked, replaced them, whic gave better performance at once, can you recomend anything that can be added to the engine to assist in cleaning out the blocker breather hoses?, also what exact do you mean by "blocked valves"?
how would i find out if water is in the sump?
dom

Dave Burns · Post by **Dave Burns** » 01 Nov 2002, 23:07

Hi Dom, I said valves as a generalisation I suppose, on lots of cars these breather pipes rarely seem to go to the air intake pipe without passing through some restriction device, filter or whatever.
The only way of finding out if there was water in the sump would be to give it an oil change and actually look for it.
However since the breather pipes were blocked, I'd let in go for a while and see if the condition recurs, unless there was high coolant loss.
Dave

alan s · Post by **alan s** » 02 Nov 2002, 04:24

Just for the record, I posted a short while ago that I had replaced the thermostat in my 16V BX and immediately noticed an improvement in the amount of condensation gathering in my breather system. In the tropics we don't get it all that cold in comparison to you guys, but our humidity even in winter can at times be really high, hence the ability to create condensation.
When I posted this, a couple, Jon I think may have been one, who said they always make it a policy to change thermostats regularly and that they had never had this condensation (mayonnaise) problem. My car used to take ages to reach operating temperature, whereas now it reaches it in a very short space of time, and it also seemed to be very hard to get the temp down in hot weather after a long run in traffic. This is now no longer a problem.
I'd suggest that with your winter approaching, now might be as good a time as any to spend a couple of quid on a new thermostat & see how it reacts to it.
There is a tendency with this problem to treat the symptoms rather than the cause.
Alan S

shaunthesheep · Post by **shaunthesheep** » 02 Nov 2002, 04:45

cheers alan, will look into replacing my themostat asap.
dom

shaunthesheep · Post by **shaunthesheep** » 10 Nov 2002, 03:12

all,
i tok it for a 60 mile+ drive couple of days ago, got home, checked filler cap, guess what no paste, well 99% of it had gone, just a little left in the groove on the under side so no need for me to worry now.
will still look into replacing the themostat if problme keeps on arising.
thanks to all who helped.
dom