Oily watery emulsion stuff

After filling up my '03 C4 with its usual diet of Optimax the other week the "Check Oil" message appeared - so I duly did so and when I opened the oil filler cap I was presented with a nasty discovery - thick creamy sludge in the filler pipe!!! - panic set in, however after calling my OPC I understand that this is quite normal - is it? I haven't noticed any other signs of a water/oil alliance however and thought I'd ask your opinions? Its covered about 800 miles and does stand for periods of upto two weeks without use. Sorry if this has been addressed before but didn't see any previous posts on the subject. Dave

It was mentioned a week or so ago, sorry I do not remember the post. Yes it is considered normal.

You normally find this happens more over the winter period due to cold air etc. Just to be double sure check that there are no oil traces in the water header tank. There is also a thread on www.rennlist.com under 996 Regards Paul

hi david, Yes I was concerned when I found the mayonaise in the oil filler neck.Thoughts of porous blocks!But no OPC said theyre all like it,and they are. So its not a problem. Peter Morgan the Porscheworld mag expert reviewed a 2nd hand car and diagnosed this as short runs ie not getting warm. Well I've wiped it clean,driven 250 miles and its still there. Funny thing you don't see it on boxster's. peter

I found some white gunge while checking the oil. My heart skipped a beat until I looked across at the Boxster and remembered I was checking the air-cooled 930T.

I drive my car every day for 30 miles or so to work (60 mile round trip). It is warm within 3 miles and is then driven at motorway speeds (3000-4000rpm). The car is generally quite hot, judging by the smell of hot metal, ther heat haze and the warm Mobil 1. It occaisionally gets longer trips to Manchester. I do no journeys of less than 8 miles, so it it always warmed through on every journey. However, the mayo still appears. The water level has not changed, the oil is burnt a quite a resonable rate. It is fully healthy. I don't know why it should appear when it doesn't on other cars I have owned - perhaps it is something to do with the oil pump(s) and defoaming coupled with wherever the breather pipe is. Most other cars don't seem to need swirl pots t o defoam the oil, so I guess it is a case of frothy oil coupled with moisture in the air.

As I said before Guys, this happened to mine and my thoughts were of cracked block etc etc, it seems to build up moisture in the top half of the motor over winter or when not used for long journeys, mine was because the car had sat at the OPC center for a couple of months and was moved from the front to back of the building of a night time, the emulsified oil was still there even after the 3 hour delivery drive from birmingham, so distance seems not to burn it off as you would expect it to, mine seems to have cured itself now even though I only use it for fun at the weekends, can only be as I said an air temperature thing. If it still persists change the oil and wash out the motor with a flushing agent before refilling. Im fairly confident that if there is no trace of oil in the water tank and it is loosing no fluid then it should be ok. The reason the boxster doesn't suffer from this is because it is dry sumped and has a separate oil tank, ( I think the 996 is as well thinking about it but has no oil tank) not had the car long so not seen every nook and cranny ......... yet ! Hope this helps Paul

Had the same thing on a previous 996, the OPC said a small amount amount of creaming is ok & can happen, on the other hand a lot can point to problems, moral of the story get it physically checked out whilst it's still under that nice new car warranty you will still have on an 03 car. Best of luck

Thanks guys for your comments and insights - everything does indeed seem normal, the car is just getting better and better the more I drive it Regards Dave

BTW - I just re-read my initial missive on this and realized that the mileage I quoted was wrong - it should be 8000 and not 800 miles!!!!!