Background: Friend'* 1999.5 Mark IV Golf 4-door with the 2.0L (auto).

Him and I checked his oil today and discovered he was a tad low and in need of a change soontime, as the oil was a little dark for our likings. I had about half a litre of 5w30 dino juice sitting in my car, so I let him have it.

Open the oil cap, and discover:





There was about as much sludge on the oil cap itself as you see in the pics, but I had wiped it off before I took the pic. I initially thought "oh ****, there goes the head gasket" - but YELLOW sludge? I'm accustomed to chocolate milkshake when coolant mixes with oil. Not banana milkshake.

Coolant levels (orange coolant) are OK. Engine runs smooth (as smooth as the naturally rough 2.0 can get). No overheating problems as far as I can tell. 140,000km (87k mi) on the car.

orange coolant + brown/black oil = toxic waste colored slug?

I don't like that moisture in there. Any overheating? Looks like a failing HG to me.

Yikes! I'm assuming oil pressure has been ok, What'* the PCV like?


http://www.genmay.com/showthread.php...9#post20898979

I know your brother is there, along with tons of people into tons of cars. Yes the images are re-hosted as well

fake edit:

no one will get that..

Look at this....http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=1732573

My first thought would be pulling the dipstick to see if it also has that look. That'* the basic look of water and oil mixed. Might be condensation or coolant. Follow Handrums lead on the link.

Looks like normal condensation to me. But check the dipstick regularly, as suggested by the dipstick above me....

It'* funny how that linked thread starts with "What'* this yellow sludge", but immediately turns into the standard synthetic vs regular oil debate. One in maybe five responses actually has anything to do with the question

Pulling the dipstick to check oil level was what led us to pull the oil cap... the stick looks fine.

IIRC VW does indeed put synthetic in from the factory in these cars, and my buddy is running conventional dino juice. The debate between oil types may be valid here.

By the looks of it, it may be an isolated incident, I'll have him check his fluid levels and colours regularly over the next couple weeks and we'll see if the sludge returns. I'll also have a look at the gasket that'* there.

I wasn't sure if that helped at all either....I read it like a week ago when I found out about another "sludge" incident. The whole conversation didn't really convince me either....untill I asked a shop up the street that primarily works on V-dub and Audi'* and said the same basic thing about the whole synthetic thing.