I was installing my new rotors and pads today and noticed a bit of an oil leak. I can't really tell how major or where it is coming from quit yet because it is blown all over the underside of the car. What really worries me is when I changed the oil a little later in the day there was some of that dreaded white milky stuff on the underside of the oil cap. Now there is no sign of coolant in the drained oil and there is no sign of oil or the dreaded white milky crap in the expansion tank. So the question is what is the white **** on the underside of the oil cap?

By the way, those 19mm bolts on the calipers are a biach to get off. Any suggestions?

Danke
(hoping my car doesn't join the broken down crowd)

 

The Milky residue under the oil cap is a buildup of condensation. This normally occurs with frequent short road trips not allowing your engine oil to rise to normal operating temperature. You should be changing you oil more often to prevent condensation from accumulating in your oil.


You could have a steering fluid leak or engine oil leaks. Have your oil leaks checked before the problem becomes compound.

 

I recently had the milkshake stuff under my oil cap as well. No sign of oil in the coolant, and no sign otherwise of coolant in my drained oil. I was however, consuming a small amount of coolant, and needing to top it off every couple of weeks. I had recently completed a rebuilt head with wide fire head gasket, so I really did not think this was the problem again. I decided to go ahead and replace my oil cooler seals. The parts are about 20 USD, plus new oil, filter, and coolant. It took me about 8 hours to complete the job. Now I do not have any milkshake stuff on my cap. On short drives, I will get clear condensation on the cap, but no milky stuff. I would be suspicious of your oil cooler seals first, head gasket second. Good luck.

 

Thanks alot for the info. I do take a lot of short trips to and from base. I only live about 3 miles away. I change my oil about every 2k miles. I will put the car up on the lift this afternoon and check it out. Are oil cooler seals a common leak?

 

Oil cooler leaks are really common, but they don't leak oil outside of the engine. They leak internally and let oil into the coolant and vice versa.

I had oil all over the front of my engine as well. It turned out I had two leaks - the oil pressure sender, and the front crank seal. The oil pressure sender lets oil out more on the passenger side, and from about halfway up the engine. Front crank seal will coat the oil pan and crossmember nicely, but only really hits stuff down low - mostly the pan.

Bryan

 

[quote] Michael:
... I do take a lot of short trips to and from base. I only live about 3 miles away... <hr></blockquote>
What might help is to drive the car for min 30 minutes to warm up completely and do this every say 2 weeks.
You may find that you will not have a leaking oil cooler seal afer all....(especially since you did not find oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil)
The white "goop" is water / pertol mixed in deteriorated oil, occurs when driving short distances.

The 19 mm bolts: HEX socket (six sided, not 12 sided) and a big beaker bar. I use a the (garage type ) wheel wrench for this.
If you have access to an impact wrench, this wll also help.
Fair chance someone used loctite on the tread, so heating (carefull, use soldering iron!!) may help as well.
Take Care

 

Michael - Sounds like it could be front engine seal(s). Take the skid/air plate off the bottom and look up at the front of your motor from the bottom.... right behind the generator & powersteering belts. If you have oil leaking from under the cam/balance belt cover, pull the cover off the timing/balance shaft belt area and give a good look. After replacing my front engine seals, the oil pump/crank seal actually worked itsself forward a mm or two and started leaking. A touch of gasket seal and I was back in business.

Good luck

 

[quote]Originally posted by Michael Adkins:
<strong>By the way, those 19mm bolts on the calipers are a biach to get off. Any suggestions?</strong><hr></blockquote>

1. Place a box end wrench on them.
2. Hit the wrench with a hammer.

This is how I got them off.

 

[quote]Originally posted by Bii:
<strong>You could have a steering fluid leak or engine oil leaks. Have your oil leaks checked before the problem becomes compound.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Michael, does your car have power steering? I didn't think the first models were avalible with power steering, but it may have been an option. My '83 does not.

 

Well several of you were right. I took the skid plate off and cleaned everything up. All it turned out to be is the oil pan gasket and the hose that connects to the power steering pump is leaking a bit. The ps fluid combined with all the snow, salt, dirt and other stuff had blown back under the passenger side of the car. I am so releived, when I saw that white crap I just about crapped my paints because I just spent around 700 on suspension upgrades and didn't want to pay to fix something else.

I finally got one of the caliper bolts off last night and it looks like someone did use some form of loctite on it. Time to take the 5 foot cheater bar to the other bolts!

 

[quote]Michael:
...and it looks like someone did use some form of loctite on it... <hr></blockquote>
Happened more often, even with Dealer maintained cars.
It might be advisable to use a very soft retainer when re-installing the bolts.
Your local DYS store has stuf marketed under the name BISON. Small white tube, blue colored glue, cost app DM 5,00 (sorry Euro 3,00 or so).
Will just prevent the bolts from moving due to the thermal load in case locking plates or safety wire can not be used.
Take Care

 

Hans,

I am not sure how far you are from Kaiserslautern but here we have great Auto-X events in the spring and summer. PCA germany region sets up a course on the Sembach Air Force base runway. Let me know if you are interested.