So, went to check the oil this morning (for the first time since I bought it), and noticed water droplets all the way up the dipstick shaft, and a milky/mayo type substance on the end of the dipstick. I freaked a bit, opened the oil filler cap and noticed the oil in the cam areas is normal, dirty but normal and not milky. Same with Tranny Fluid.

Checked the coolant reservoir and the coolant appears to be a perfect 50/50 mix and is green, even though the container itself look kind of stained brown.

I have taken a few short trips, (less than a mile from cold start) but have been letting it warm up for about 3-5 minutes before driving. I notice a bit of steam comes out of the exhaust and until im actually driving more than 2 miles the temp gauge never goes more than 1/3rd of the way up, but when driving on the freeway it rises but never goes above the halfway mark, so its not overheating. The heater works fine too, gets nice and hot and hasnt seemed to be losing any coolant since I bought it. Ive probably put a max of about 70 miles on it in the last 1.5 weeks, and its been pretty cold here (40'F) and in Oregon we have a lot of moisture.

Is this cause for concern?

Pictures:

Dipstick:
http://imageshack.com/a/img812/1914/liaj.jpg

Coolant Tank:
http://imageshack.com/a/img35/3100/um55.jpg

Coolant (Soaked on a paper towl):
http://imageshack.com/a/img809/3880/kf9y.jpg

EDIT: Forgot to Mention its a Turbo with approx 170K Miles, recent water pump/timing belt change within the last 1K Miles.

 

No, normal aluminum motor sweet.

You do not need to let the motor warm up. However, it should go to 1/2 way and stay there so you likely have a worn thermostat.

 

Thanks for the great response and the vids. Ive had many all-aluminum nissans and have never seen this on any of the dipsticks, so it scared the hell out of me. Thanks for the great info!

 

Common scare. I have actually seen quick lube places chase people with 850's away, telling them that they had a bad head gasket and they refused to do an oil change.

 

My turbo did that too, last winter. I never heard of it before I got a volvo, but it was not anything wrong with the car.

 

Ours has done that in the winter for the last 7 years and 75,000 miles and it has 245K on it. Perfectly normal. Take it out for a good spin (an hour or so) and let it warm up good. Most likely that will cure your issue for awhile.

 

We have five turbo Volvo's (2x850's & 3xP2's) in the family and I recall all of them seem to do this. I would love to know why this occurs. As a side note, I've had numerous alloy engines and only the Volvo engines do this

 

I just checked my compression and its about 150 all the way across, not sure what it should be but that sounds pretty acceptable.

 

Was the test done with the motor hot and WOT?

 

No open throttle, kind of warm (I let it run only for about 3-5 minutes from complete cold in 36'F weather).

 

WOT doesn't really matter. The spec is 156 to 185 psi so as long they're fairly even it should be OK.