Rev. Tom Wenndt said:
In a '91 Hyundai, I would agree. And foamy, yes.
But people shouldn't mistake some white, especially on their oil cap, for
foamy. This is oxidation in the oil
I was always told it was an emulsion of the oil with condensation. That
is why it tends to collect in the parts of the engine that are coolest,
like the underside of the filler cap and the inside of the valve covers.
Every car I have ever owned that did not have a PCV valve would do this, and
usually within about 2500 miles or so. If you have a car doing that, I
learned that you just have to be content to change the oil more often. It
seemed worse in Winter in those cars, for some reason. And even using
synthetic oil, it would do the same thing. You just had to keep the oil
meticulously changed and it worked out fine.
I believe that is because there is much more condensation in winter as
the engine often isn't run long enough to get it hot enough to
thoroughly evaporate the condensation in the engine.
In fact, each of those three engines (including one Korean engine) ran great
and trouble-free, and even when I had to get rid of those cars (with over
200,000 miles on them each) it was not because of a problem with the engine.
Pretty amazing, eh? I've only had one car that I got rid of because of
engine troubles in 30+ years of car ownership. That was a POS 84 Honda
Accord that I purchased new, maintained meticulously (it was my first
ever brand new car), used Mobil 1 and genuine Honda filters, etc., and
the top end of the engine self-destructed at about 72,000 miles.
Honda wouldn't stand behind it even on penny. They first accused me of
not maintaining the car properly. I sent them more than 20 pages copied
from my fuel purchase and maintenance log along with receipts for their
GENUINE Honda oil filters and other parts. They replied back
acknowledging that maintenance deficiencies didn't appear to be the
issue after all, but then told me that the car was out of warranty (duh,
I knew that) and they felt that 72,000 miles was within their "normal
manufacturing tolerances" for engine life and therefore they were
"unable" to "subsidize" my repair.
That's OK. They saved $300-600, but have lost thousands since. The
repair was around $600 and since the warranty had expired I didn't
expect them to cover the full repair, but I thought they at least might
throw in the parts which came to a little more than half of the bill.
So, by saving $300 in 1984, they cost themselves the sale of at least
the four new vehicles I've purchased since then. And, though I can't be
sure, I think I've talked at least four other people out of buying a Honda.
Matt
