Brown Gunk/Sludge in Oil

O

orangedive

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I have a 2003 4Runner V6 with 140k miles. Today, when I was changing my oil, I noticed some brown sludge on the underside of my oil cap.

Does anyone know what my issue is? Does it indicate head gasket troubles? Any help is appreciated. Thanks!
 
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Probably just a byproduct of frequent short trips without letting the engine warm up fully. How did the rest of the oil that you drained look?
 
sonerick said:
Probably just a byproduct of frequent short trips without letting the engine warm up fully. How did the rest of the oil that you drained look?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response. The rest of the oil looked okay. You may very well be correct. It has been very cold here lately, and my wife only drives it 10 minutes each way to work.
 
I had the same thing happen in my 03, the previous owner of mine had a short commute. And when changing my oil , everything looks fine. You should be good.
 
I don't get that when running high-quality synthetics, and if you're doing a lot of short trips, that makes it more worthwhile.
 
sonerick said:
Probably just a byproduct of frequent short trips without letting the engine warm up fully. How did the rest of the oil that you drained look?
Click to expand...

Thanks for this info. This makes perfect sense, as my commute is literally 2-3 minutes. This entire winter i've been starting the car, waiting around 30 seconds before taking off.

Today I changed my oil and noticed this....

YEP7EJb.jpg


The rest of the oil that came out looked like normal old oil.
 
Update: So, I cleaned out the oil cap and the cylinder after I posted this thread. My wife did her best to let the car warm up before her daily trips to work (although, I don't know exactly how dilligent she was). Anyway, there is still a little bit of creamy sludge under the oil cap. I also notice just a faint coating of the sludge on the dipstick.

Is this something I should be worried about? It's just unnearving to keep seeing this stuff. I freakin love this car, and I want to keep it around a little longer.

I replaced the PCV value back in October. Would that have anything to do with my issues?

Thanks for any response.
 
as stated before, a full synthetic might help. hows the coolant level? any white smoke from exhaust?
 
Last edited:
chaz said:
as stated before, a full synthetic might help. hows the coolant level? any white smoke from exhaust?
Click to expand...

No white smoke from the exhaust. The coolant level is a little low but not substantially low--it's not below the minimum line.

Is it okay to switch to a full synthetic at this point in the engine's life? I use a blend currently.
 
Just to give an update...

Once Spring 2013 came and the weather warmed up, the brown/white sludge went away. Now that's it's winter again, it came back.

I think it is no big deal. I also recently sent a sample to blackstone labs to get an analysis completed. There was 0% antifreeze and water in the oil, so I feel pretty confident that there is no issue with my engine
 
Its common on the 1GR-FEs more than other Toyota engines, its a result of a combination of factors as stated above. Mainly cold weather, cold oil temperature, moisture in the oil, and so on; its not a super big deal and there's even a term for it "Lung Butter." I would't worry about it unless you're seeing issues in the oil when you drain it or check it, replacing the PCV is a good thing to reduce the occurrence of it as it lets the engine breathe better.

All in all, nothing to be seriously concerned about.
 
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