Normal oil fill cap condensation?

Hello,

Want to make sure what I am looking at is "normal". Went to check my fluids today because I have noticed my coolant lv a little low a few weeks ago and have been keeping an eye on it. Everything looked good, added maybe a cup of coolant to get it up to where the factory mark is. No bypass tube leak, no timing cover leak, everything is bone dry.

Went to check my oil fill cap (normally just check to see if it is tightened between oil changes) and it was I'm guessing frozen on because it was hard to unscrew. As you can see by the pics this is what was on/in it. It looked pretty dried almost a rusty color dried, there was about a single water droplet or 2 sitting at the top of the oil fill tube. Some water spots inside of the cap. The oil on the dip stick looked normal, no bubbles/milky color. Oil level is a little higher than normal, but it sits on a slight incline and its been sitting for 2 days straight, so I'm not to worried about the lv. Especially since the oil looked 100% normal.

I have never seen this before on the truck, it has 87.5k miles on it. It has been very cold here the past week (single digits during the day without wind chill). Its starting to warm up above freezing the past couple of days. I drive this about 50-60 miles a day during the week. It has sat all weekend since Friday. I am hoping this is just condensation and nothing more. Thoughts?

 

Do you do a lot of short trips? If so then yes this is to be expected.

 

Nope, just the 50-60 miles a day during the week. Hasn't been moving out of the garage on the weekends recently. If I need to do short trips, I use the wife's Rav4 (checked fluids on it as well, perfectly fine).

 

Looks normal to me.
I wouldn't worry about it at all.

 

You will get a bit more condensation in the winter months. Not sure where you are located. Assume northern states?

I can say neither of our Toyotas have that. I would not say it’s normal. I’m in North central Indiana about 80 miles north of Indy

**Have a 2008 FJ with 147k and a 23 Tacoma with 13k. Neither have oil cap condensation……

 

I have never seen that rust on my oil cap or any oil cap I've worked with before, probably don't want water in your oil or fuel

 

It’s not rust. It’s oil stained condensation.

 

Usually when it's orange like that coolant has mixed with oil.

 

It is normal
Type this in goole, then click images.

This gets asked quite often.
Its Normal.

Search this

“ tacomaworld oil cap condensation “

 

My trucks 8 years old and doesn't look like that.
Maybe the head gasket is leaking?

 

Southeast WY, so pretty dry here. Maybe a bad blend of winter gas? I put a bottle of Heet in the gas 2 weeks ago before the hard cold spell happened. Never seen it in either of our vehicles, that's why its alarming to me now.

Even with the dip stick oil looking 100% normal after a few checks? Coolant or just some condensation?

 

What did the oil look like at the last oil change? If there was coolant cross contamination you'd definitely know when the oil was changed.

 

What are your oil change intervals?

 

Just looked like oil, nothing abnormal about it. I have had zero indication that there has been any cross contamination prior to today.

Stick with the 10k maintenance manual intervals. Changed it in July/7500 miles ago (@ 80k).

 

There are a few that look just like mine, some a lot worse. Going to monitor oil & coolant this week and see what happens.

 

Oil change interval is the issue. The oil is retaining the contaminants and condensation, thus creating your issue.

I’ve never seen this on one of my vehicles. Bought my 1st car three days before I turned 15…….that was 41 years ago. I change oil at 3k on carbureted vehicles, the new ones at or just under 5k

 

I'll bite. Why is that interval an issue, are you saying it needs to be done more/less often? Is it due to being changed in July and its now January that would cause a build up of condensation?

 

Then I'd have to agree with the others that it's just normal condensation from driving in a cold climate. If you notice the truck overheating or the oil getting worse at future oil changes you might have a bigger problem.

 

in my opinion oil changes needs to be done earlier. There are many, many Toyota techs that state 10k oil change intervals are horrible for the 3.5.

I’m saying is you have this issue because the contaminants and the condensation from the cooler temperatures are now in the oil. They are now showing their face in the filler tube and your oil filler cap. This stuff doesn’t form in fresh clean oil.

There are a few that say this is normal. Yes it is normal with engines that have contaminants and condensation in the oil. Is generally due to short trips, where the engine oil doesn’t get hot enough, for long enough, to burn condensation out of the oil.

It’s your engine, if you’re OK with it, stick with your oil change interval, and allow to build up.

 

I'm shocked that this thread turned into a 5K vs 10K mile oil change debate!