Time for a new head gasket?

[m3f_r3ptar1337]

Hey everyone

Its pretty nice outside today so I figured I would do some maintenance on my car and when I was adding some oil I realized the bottom of the cap had some milky oil on it.

Now I know this means that water is getting mixed into the oil.

But i don't know where I go from here. Should I just change the head gasket ( which is probably due anyways) or is there something else I should look at first?

Car is a 98 with 190k

Should also add that my oil was pretty low, Ill probably just change it today

[m3f_fiveightandten]

That's totally normal for the winter months. No need to worry unless you have other symptoms.


If you have a short commute, take the long way home so the car gets up to full operating temp (including the oil heating up fully and evaporating that moisture).

[m3f_cscat87]

Exactly what Nick said. I get the same thing in mine because I usually just drive it into town and back, which is a 5 minute round trip. I freaked out the first time I saw the "milky" oil cap, until someone told me about this.