the other day while i was filling up my car i checked my oil level. I was about 1/3 quart low, so i went to put some oil in. i opened up the filler neck, and there was some sort of white foam sitting in the filler neck. has anyone else had this happen to them? or do you know what it is?

 

Check the FAQs my friend.

 

i may not be entirely correct here but i believe that is sign of coolant getting mixed into the oil, ie: your water seals are failing and its time for a rebuild. but im not certain about that.

 

close but not true. Drill a hole in your oil cap and screw in a "L" fitting. that will allow it breath better.

 

Coould be coolant, most likely it's just condensation...

As $100T2 says... faq it...

 

yeah i just went and read the faq about it.
i should just keep my fat mouth shut. hahaha

 

Hehe... it happens

 

Could be ordinary condensation, could be internal water seal. Neither require a rebuild.

B

 

Vash, Your supposed to help the man, not scare him!!!

 

Let the frickin car warm up before you drive it. You're going on short trips and not letting the engine get hot.

Either that, or your PCV system isn't working.

 

Not really but here's a my proof that not warming it up is not gonna kill a motor. (Starting the car then shutting it off may). When my FB was a DD, I never warm up my engines in the afternoon (afterwork) and that 13-B streetport lasted approximately 130K miles. Then I pulled it out and got it re-sealed it as I had extra cash at that time. Now, that motor is still running strong in the RX-3. Otherwise, I would have driven it til it die.

 

It's not the warming up before driving. It's driving it for 10-15 minutes and shutting it off. The condensation doesn't have a chance to evaporate, and just collects in the oil, causing the yellowish whiteish foam in the filler neck.

 

Of course, it could be bad water jacket seals but not necessarily. To eliminate this as a possibility:

Check your spark plugs. Are the business ends of them dry and tan or grey in color? If so, your engine is probably ok. On the other hand, if the spark plugs' insulators appear to be steam-cleaned to a pearly white (especially if they have coolant on them) it's teardown time.

When the car is running is there a big-*** white steam cloud (accompanied by the sickeningly-sweet smell of coolant) coming out the exhaust even after the engine is warmed up? If so, it's teardown time. If not, you're probably ok.

Do you have to top up the coolant every few weeks? Days? Hours? If it's only a weekly thing it could be just a small leak elsewhere. Or maybe your water jacket seals are beginning to fail, but not severely enough to have a white cloud and steam-cleaned plugs. But if it's a daily top-up and there's no leakage on the ground you'll also have the white cloud and shiny plugs. Not good.

It is normal to have a whitish exhaust cloud on start-up. This will dissipate after a few minutes. On colder (especially on cold and wet) days it will still be visible after warm-up but nowhere near as ominous as it was before warm-up.

 

if you guys do the oil cap trick, you should have any problem with condensation