I know this usually indicates water in the oil, usually from a blown head gasket, but I am not losing any water. There is no sludge on the valvetrain or oil cap, the oil looks normal when I change it and I have had this off and on for a couple of years now without the engine blowing up or even acting up in any way. It even passed a recent emissions test with flying colours. Does the 850 have a problem with water getting into the dipstick tube?

Forgot to mention that the NEW replacement dipstick has 2 o-rings for better sealing and is slightly larger in diameter than the old dipstick so you will have to get the new/updated dipstick tube as well.

roll on
Peter

Most of the time this is caused by a poor sealing/bad o-ring on the dipstick which lets moisture in.
I would first spend the $1.00 for a new o-ring and see what happens.
Worked for me.

roll on
Peter

Like others have posted, this is "normal" during cool weather commuting. You should see the undersides of my Moto Guzzi's aluminum rocker covers during winter. Like mud.

I'd like to pass on that when my 850's original dipstick handle broke off, I ordered a replacement from FCP over the winter. In very short order it began corroding rapidly and pitting at the point where this emulsified oil collects. About midway up the dipstick. I stopped using it and put the original, clean stick back in, broken handle and all.

Last thing I want to happen is to pull out a dipstick and find that half of it stayed behind.

Not slamming FCP specifically for this, the inferior metal is probably used in other aftermarket sticks as well.

YMMV

Erwin

I have a 96 850T with over 260k miles. Mine has been doing this for years. I had the head gasket redone a few years back, so I figured it was solved. It's back again this winter (didn't notice it in the summer), so maybe it is a cold weather thing. But I have a 40 mile round trip to work on the highway, so I would think it gets hot enough.

I guess the occasional Italian tune-up would take care of this?
--
'96 855 Wagon, 200k (and formerly 97 850, 120k)

If you drive it for fuel economy and don't get the rpms over 2K for sustained periods, you will get sludge problems and cold oil. Just like making short trips.

Klaus
--
There is no present time, just the past and future

On my 740 turbo (I don't know 850 cars) I had white-beige sludge in winter, followed all the good advice given already given in this thread. Still dipstick sludge remained. Then replaced my thermostat as solution for a different problem: old stat was rated 87 degrees, but new one is 92 degrees as my mechanic likes, and sludge never returned. Engine wasn't getting hot enough on short trips with lower temp thermostat.

I don't know what the usual thermostat ratings are for 850 but it seems something worth looking into.

This will usually always happen if the car is used for only short trips of less than 5 miles or so and never gets warmed up for any length of time.

BTW - This also happened on my 240. Not exclusively an 850 issue. I'm guessing it can happen to any car. Strangely enough it hasn't happened to my 850 this winter. My commute is still the same. Must be the mild winter we're having. No complaints...

There's a rubber o-ring on your oil and tranny dipstick
mine didn't fit well and needed replacement. I think my oil dipstick
looked a little crappy after power washing the engine and a loose fit of
the o-ring, the rest of the oil at change time looked fine.

Why don't you change your oil and see what it looks like? If you haven't already,
switch to synthetic oil which doesn't clog up the oil galleries and egr like dyno oil.

Bill

One way to get rid of the sludge is to clean the dipstick AND the tube - then go for a long ride so that the engine gets warmed up really well.

If you wait a bit and check the oil, the dipstick should look OK.

I think that the sludge is condensation that collects because the dipstick is in front of the engine and not enough heat is conducted up the tube to clear it. A metal dipstick might cure this minor aggravation.

A LOT of water vapor is generated in the engine when fuel is burned, most goes out the exhaust, but some ends up inside other parts of the engine and is only removed if the engine gets hot enough,

I first observed this gunk the winter of 2002 in our '95 855, none of our three 850s seem to have suffered any problems because of it.
--
'96 855R,'64 PV544 driver, '67 P1800 basket case, '95 855, '95 854, the first three are mine, heh, heh, 485,000 miles put on 9 bricks

Water gets into the oil via condensation, usually caused by not getting the oil temperature hot enough to boil off the water and other impurities. Short trips in cold weather will do it.

Klaus
--
There is no present time, just the past and future

Ditto, had this myself on my old 98 V70. Switch to syn oil and get her nice and warm on the highway with some spirited driving ;-)

In really cold weather, if your trip will be too short to properly warm up the engine, go out of your way to drive a few extra miles. Possibly get onto the the interstate and go one exit in one direction, turn around, and come back.

Heck, I just drive in 2nd gear. It's more fun that way!

Klaus
--
There is no present time, just the past and future

Hows your mileage?

My mileage is 220,000 km and my commute is 25 miles each way, mostly at highway speeds, so warming up the engine is not a problem.

I just found the same thing on my 95 turbo wagon, I found sludge on the dipstick. I dumped some oil solvent in for a bit before draining and replaced with full synthetic. The sludge problem seems to be ok with the synthetic in there but suddenly my cars fuel economy is down 20% or so, which seems like a lot. The two things happened at the same time so they seem like they might be related, but otherwise I'm not really sure where to start looking for things.

I did do an auto to manual swap in the car and have an ARD Green tune in there to make it all work, so I figured the sludge could have been tied to the higher temps of the tune and driving it a little harder with the manual trans than I did before.