Hi all,

I have a bit of gunge under the oil filler cap which seems to appear as soon as the engine is started but then lessens the further you drive. Dipstick is also a little gungy but the coolant seems to be clear of oil although there is a little bit of gunge on the coolant bottle neck. The coolant temp dial gets to half way very quickly - about 2 or 3 mins but then stays there. No other problems and the coolant isnt leaking. Any cause for concern here?

Its an Octy 1 2.0l petrol year 2000.

Cheers

Is it like a salad dressing/mayo substance?

Hi,

Yes it is which i know can indicate head gasket, but with the coolant looking OK and coolant level not dropping i wasn't sure.

It can happen in the cold weather especially if your journeys are mostly short.

You can get head gasket failure detection kits - you drop them in the coolant and they will detect combustion gases. Might be worth a go before panicing too much.

Yes, the gunge can appear sometimes under the filler cap/dipstick but Ive never seen it appear into the coolant. This shouldnt be happening. Id advise the above.

Brothers fiesta gets full of this and it's head gasket was fine last i checked.

It's just the oil not getting up to temperature so you get water from the air etc in it turning to mayo.

Go for the test kit, but I'd say you were fine as it goes away as the car warms up more.

As for the gunge in the coolant bottle neck, that is fairly normal, esp if your coolant hasn't been changed recently.

2-3 minutes for the temp guage to get half way? My TDi takes about 8-10 minutes in the current climage on the south coast. Granted we are talking about a 2litre petrol, but do they heat up *that* quickly?

More like 5-10 mins to get to 90 here too (half way)