I often hear "longer drives" but what does that mean in terms of time on the road ? I have something similar (oil cap, but not in the rad cap) and i suspect short drives in the February chill in my neck of the woods is the cause. thanks for the input !

 

Why not get your engine up to an indicated 180 degrees F(or around 90 degrees C) and drive it for 30 minutes.

 

This gets posted fairly often and the responses always get me a bit ranty

I drive my car every day 37 km to work and then 37 km back home. I run the bag off it every day - redline every ten minutes, between 2000 and 5000 rpm the rest of the time.

My car has always run like a top, no strange noises, the motor is sound.

I use Motul 8100 15/540 - not the best I know, but not the Mobil 1 crap either.

I change my oil every 8000 kilometres, the most recent change was last month - about 1500 kilometres ago.

You know where this is going right - yep.

Just this morning I used a slurpee straw (scoop on the end right) to clean out my oil filler tube which looked just like that pictured here.

When it's cold and wet outside - this s&*t happens.

It's normal - don't worry about it.

 

look at the length of the filler tube. the heat of the engine is barely making it up to there.

nothing to worry about, and no need for drastically shorter drain intervals either.