Coolant drop 9a / tiny bit of creaminess on the oil cap

[radness 0]

Excuse my newbie questions but is it normal for coolant to go down a bit? I thought with the system being sealed what was in rarely escaped unless through a headgasket?

 

I had the coolant/waterpump replaced around September with the new g12+ stuff, it was sitting right on MAX line, though checking it today (2 months later) and i notice it's just sitting on the min. So I topped it up. The engine *NEVER* runs above 80c Water / 98c Oil no matter how hard i horse it.

 

I changed oil recently to 10/40 mobile super s and i checked under oil cap and there was a tiny little bit (less than the size of a 5p piece) of creamyness on the top of the cap, it wasn't' really that noticable but it's something i've never seen before. Is this more of a sign of short journys in cold wealther rather than a blown head gasket?

 

Would my coolant volume go down with the recent tempature drops?

 

Once again, thanks for any answers :)

[radness 0]

crap, posted in wrong forum, can a mod please move? sorry

[dr_mat 0]

It's normal to get a bit of mayo in the cold weather if you're only doing short journeys a lot. You need to get all the oil over ~100 degrees C for a while to boil out the dissolved water - which forms naturally as condensation because it's so cold.

 

But it's also true to say that you shouldn't normally lose coolant. That doesn't mean it's going out the head gasket though..

[Toad 0]

If you're just doing short journeys, then I wouldn't panic too much, it's chuffing cold and damp at the moment.

 

Keep an eye on the coolant level over the next few weeks. There's a lot of pipes/flanges that could be leaking.

[radness 0]

Thanks for the replies. puts my head at peace.

 

Something i've noticed, using 10/40 mobile super S seems to make my engine a good bit happier, isn't burning as much oil, has gone down about 1/6th from Max - Min on the dipstick after 1500 miles and thats with driving in the high revs (tend not to rev until the engine is sitting atleast 60-70c oil). Was using that nasty GTX Magnetec before which my engine seemed to like to drink..