[Dave Kwatro]

Unfortunately yes it does look like the head gasket. Not a cheap job, probably about £1000 to £1500 to fix, then there is the reason why it has gone, so possibly more money.

The car will only emit excess white smoke when the head gasket is gone, when the cylinder gasket rings are gone and it's coolant getting into the cylinders that cause the excess white smoke. In the winter the car will produce white steam especially when idling, if just off the motorway, there may be no smoke.

What year is your car?

 

[Dave Kwatro]

Yeah, it shouldn't get 'mayo', that much, even on short runs. The 14 miles you do should warm the oil to normal temperatures. The mayo you get from short journeys tends to be on the underneath of the oil cap, not that much on the dip stick.

Yes most cars will emit white smoke, well it's steam. you need to worry when it's excessive white smoke and when the exhaust is fully warm like after being on the motorway and blue smoke which is oil burning.

Draining the oil will also reveal if it is just moisture in the oil from short journeys and the oil not warming up properly. Have you taken it to the garage?

 

[Dave Kwatro]

Ha ha, yeah you need to get the car looked at in more details, possible pressure testing etc to find the cause of the mayo. But unfortunately it does look like head gasket, probably between the coolant and oil passages. There are products that will re seal the gasket, and some have good results, but they can introduce other issues like blocked coolant passages. I've used in the past on old cars and they seem fine, but whether you want to try that approach on a nice car is up to you. Depends on your budget etc.

 

[Dave Kwatro]

Iulian. Mate I am not convinced about the head gasket cos in my experience you would have loads of steam behind the car.

This only if the coolant galleries are leaking into the cylinders, basically burning the coolant. And usually quite an amount.

In Yulian's case, if it is coolant in the oil causing the milky oil, then that's the seam between oil and coolant, but when cold, the oil is under more pressure than the coolant so would pass into the coolant. Once warmed up the coolant pressure will be around 0.5 to 1 bar so possibly enough for coolant to pass into the oil.

 

[Dave Kwatro]

Fortunately, that oil doesn't look that bad, when it's a definite leak the oil looks like brown mayo!

It does look like a leaky water pump, again! pump can only last 10k miles, even my S5 had a new water pump at 10k miles from new! Do you know what brand of pump was used in the replacement?

My S5 only likes to be just above Min when cold as when hot, it is at Max. So when at Max when cold, when it gets hot, it just squirts it out through the tank cap. I even bought a new cap as it didn't look like the coolant got to a proper pressure. The pressure keeps the coolant level down.

I would change the coolant pump if that leak is around it and change the oil, if it's older than 4k miles. and see how it goes!

 

[Dave Kwatro]

Is there a way to leak water in oil around the water pump?

No, the coolant and oil are totally separate systems.

The oil and water can mix in other areas like head gasket, oil cooler (if coolant cooled), PCV, again if coolant cooled.

 

[Dave Kwatro]

I don't understand why ours would be different. Following the recall work I got into the habit of checking my levels in case the dealer tech had left a leak. No leak and now I have a clear pencil mark where the cold level is, and the hot level is at max. I'd need to check but I think that pencil mark is about 1/3 down from the max level.

I have had mine on Max when cold, but not long after driving a few times it always seems to go down and sit at a bit above Min mark when cold. When hot it sits just below Max. At first I thought I had a coolant leak somewhere, but since I left it at just above Min when cold, it hasn't gone down anymore, so I leave it and it's been like that for well over 12 months, possibly 2 years.