Milky oil concerns
- Thread starter leadcounsel
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Normal...especially for the amount you drive and the season. I drive 25k of mostly highway miles per year and during the cold months my oil cap has a milky film on it.
Top off the oil and take it for a beat run! Find a way to take a day trip and do some sight-seeing. Get it on the highway and drive for as long as you can stand and drive it harder than usual. Slow down a bit and then floor it to get up above highway speed a bit and coast down a few times. Get everything nice and hot and you will burn any moisture in the oil off. The longer you can keep it at operating temperature the better!
Top off the oil and take it for a beat run! Find a way to take a day trip and do some sight-seeing. Get it on the highway and drive for as long as you can stand and drive it harder than usual. Slow down a bit and then floor it to get up above highway speed a bit and coast down a few times. Get everything nice and hot and you will burn any moisture in the oil off. The longer you can keep it at operating temperature the better!
Again everyone, thanks for the feedback. I was under a time crunch that day, needed to take the truck to get something, and was probably overly cautious by dumping the oil and filling with new. The oil that came out looked perfectly fine and it was definitely wasteful. But under my time-constraints I was unwilling to risk my engine if I was wrong. Small cost for peace of mind, but a good education for the future. Vehicles will get more highway time more regularly! Thanks!
Ya. The oil cap and the dipstick tube are typically the coldest part of the engine which is exposed to oil and combustion byproducts so combustion generated moisture will condense out on these surfaces. No worries even on a short tripper.
Shel_B
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Peace of mind is worth a lot, IMO. As suggested by others, take that puppy out for a nice long run every now and then. I short trip a lot, and especially when the weather is cool, I drive in third gear around town to keep revs up a bit and put some heat into the oil. I like to keep the revs up to around 2,000, and sometimes I'll drive a bit in 2nd gear and bring the revs up a bit more.
The milky coolant is condensation AS LONG AS the oil drained/dipstick and a combustion gas test return normal readings.
The other concern I'd wonder about is the oil loss? Are 4.7s known oil burners?
Long drives work, but keep an eye on the oil consumption that would be my main area of concern, especially when starting long trips.
The other concern I'd wonder about is the oil loss? Are 4.7s known oil burners?
Long drives work, but keep an eye on the oil consumption that would be my main area of concern, especially when starting long trips.
f355spider
$50 Site Donor 2024
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f355spider
$50 Site Donor 2024
I have a 2007 Tundra 4.7L and it has always done this in winter. Remove the oil filler cap, and the underside of the cap is milky tan looking. It only does this in winter, and when driven consistently on short trips. The past three years, it is driven at least 100 miles each day and I no longer see this in winter. When I first noticed this around 2010, I searched forums and learned this was common to this engine during winter, with consistent short trips. So appears to be normal operation.
Now at around 311,000 miles and between 7k OCI it consumes about 1/2 quart...has done that consistently since around 120k miles. I rarely bother to top up. I use the cheapest synthetic 5w-30 I can find (Kirkland Signature or Quaker State 5w-30) and a Toyota factory oil filter.