I took the oil cap off last night and it was covered with milky looking oil. At first I was pissed, thinking the head gasket had gone bad, but then I remembered my old Volvo would do that too when it was cold out and was normal. Is that a common thing for Audi's too? I haven't been driving the car much, due to needing new plug wires, so maybe it's just a combo of the cold weather and not getting the engine hot? When I bought the car a month ago I didn't notice any milky residue, and I've driven it less than 20 miles since then, so I am hoping it's normal!

 

Yes, when an engine does not warm up fully, you can have a milky residue on the bottom of the oil cap. This is normal. The oil does not get hot enough to boil off the water vapor that condensed in the engine. As long as the dipstick and inside of the valve cover have clear oil, you are fine.

 

i dont remeber having any residue from oil...especially milky one..


last time i had that fortune it was on my ford, and head was cracked and oil mixed with water....

 

Its normal, especially if you make a lot of short trips in cold weather. I remember back when i was in the audi academy we had about 40 audis, and all of them had that residue under the oil cap because they never really left the lot.

 

Neat! Now I won't have to crap my pants next time I top mine off.

 

As I said before (and Auditech may confirm this), these are not cars to be driven in small towns only for short trips - go to Cub Foods or WhateverBigMart and come back. In bigger cities where you drive 30-45 minutes to get to work that's different. I will never buy again an Audi A6 unless I have a garage and we use it exclusively as the "cruising" car. It performs at best and lasts longer without any hicups or repairs when all the fluids are at proper/normal/working temp.

 

I can agree with that, I don't know that diving short distances will cut the life of the engine as much as irresponsible driving at colder engine temps. The oil clearances are ultra tight in these cars, so driving it hard when the oil is at its thickest can shorten the engine life, for example my GMC truck has such large oil clearances i can floor board it when its still cold and it won't make a big difference......That and its dirt cheap to fix LOL.

 

and I'll agree with the above except abusing that Jimmy

If what's being said is true..take it out for a nice long drive...then after it's cooled..recheck it, it should not have signs of water/vapor on the cap. Keep us posted.