How To Flush Milky Oil From Engine (7 Easy Steps To Follow)

Tan-colored or milky oil in the engine may reduce your car’s engine performance and fuel economy. So it’s better to flush the milky oil to get the vehicle running at its peak again.

But how to flush milky oil from engine?

First, drain the old and gunk milky oil to empty the reservoir. Now pour one gallon of new Liqui Moly oil into the car’s crankcase and run the car for 15 minutes. After that, drain the oil to remove the emulsion and pour the car’s recommended oil, changing the oil filter. 

We know the information isn’t enough to perform this task. It is also essential to learn the causes of milky oil, how to prevent it, and many more. Let’s deep dive, as here we discuss everything for your convenience. 

What Does Milky Oil Mean?

There is a white residue form on the oil cap because of the engine’s heat, and water evaporation. In simple words, that oil is known as milky oil as it looks like milk.

Milky Oil Causes

Though it’s slightly tough to determine your car’s milky oil root cause, it’s also unfair to solve the problem without knowing its causes. Mostly there are 5 causes of turning your oil milky. Such as

Water Evaporation

Water evaporation and condensation is the main culprit of milky oil. Your engine’s generated high heat is the first reason, and weather change can be the second reason for condensation and forming of milky oil. 

Mixing Regular Engine Oil And Coolant 

Mixing the coolant with the usual engine oil is another possible reason for milky oil. However, the unfortunate thing is that it happened due to your carelessness.

Do you wonder how? 

If you don’t regularly maintain your car, the gasket leaking and damaging the engine is highly possible. So the usual and coolant oil get the chance to mix and turn the oil milky. 

Using Poor And Foreigner’s Oil

You shouldn’t have to be a Petroleum oil expert to know that the oil which isn’t recommended by the manufacturer or poor won’t perform as best as quality and recommended oil. So using poor or foreign oil may break down easily and build sludge and deposits. When all that happens, the engine oil becomes milky or cloudy. 

Oil’s Lower Levels

Oil won’t be appropriately injected if the oil’s level is lower than its requirement. Improper injection means insufficient lubrication to the engine’s internal parts, higher metal-to-metal contact, and higher sludge and deposit formation. The more sludge builds up; the more oil will be milky due to external particles that will mix in the oil.

Harsh Weather Running 

The temperature ranging from 32°c to 45°c is determined as too hot weather, and the temperature ranging from 10°c to -7°c is determined as too cold weather. If you run the car under this harsh weather, you should choose the oil’s viscosity considering this weather conditions. Otherwise, the oil can’t cope with the temperature, so it breaks down and turns to milky for building deposits and sludge. 

However, sunlight reflection and ice reflection are the other two reasons to look at the oil milky in too hot and too cold weather.

How To Flush Milky Oil From Engine

Once you are sure that the engine oil is getting cloudy or milky, follow instructions to flush the oil from the engine without wasting time. However, you have to prepare some equipment to make the work easier and save time. 

The Things You’ll Need

• A rug
• A drain pan
• An adjustable wrench 
• Oil filter
• Liqui Moly
• Regular engine oil that you use

Step 1: Set The Car

You should park the car on an even surface and ensure the engine is off with an emergency brake. Remove the oil dipstick, if there is any. 

Step 2: Drain Milky Oil 

Detect the engine’s oil drain plug and place a drain pan underneath the plug. Remove the drain plug from the machine with an adjustable wrench. As soon as you remove the plug, the dirty oil drains, and the pan will catch it. 

When no milky oil is left, replace the drain plug to the engine. Properly tighten the plug to secure no oil leaking when you pour new engine oil. 

Step 3: Remove The Oil Filter Plug

Finding the oil filter plug, remove it with the help of an oil filter wrench. Clean the debris with a rug that you see beside the filter so that the debris won’t get the chance to enter the engine.  

Step 4: Pouring New Oil 

Pour 1 liter of Liqui Moly or Resolin oil onto the reservoir and replace the oil filter plug. 

Step 5: Run The Car 

Now, run the car for around 100-500 miles or at least 15 minutes to burn the new Liqui Moly oil and most of the moisture. Moreover, the extra milky oil, which wasn’t drained the first time, will be mixed with the new oil when the new oil burns. 

Step 6: Check The Oil 

Now check the oil with an oil dipstick. In most cases, you find the new oil is slightly black and cloudy. Drain the oil as you previously did in step 2. 

Step 7: Pour New  Engine Oil 

Again remove the oil filter plug and pour one gallon of new oil according to your manufacturer recommendations or generally what you use based on your local weather as you’ll use it to run the car permanently. Then again, tighten the plug to secure it. 

Cost Of Flushing Milky Oil From The Engine 

There is no fixed cost of flushing milky engine oil as it depends on some factors. If you do it yourself and use only flushing oil, oil filter, and new engine oil, the cost will be around $20 to $30. 

On the other hand, if you take a professional mechanic’s help, his charge will be added to the equipment cost. As flushing milky oil isn’t a hard job, we recommend you do it and save the bucks. 

What Happens When You Don’t Flush Milky Oil?

The milky oil can harm your engine if it isn’t flush regularly. Let’s know some significant issues. 

Poor Engine Performance

The performance of the engine will be lower than previous. More power loss and less acceleration are the main reasons for reducing engine performance. And it happens due to milky oil. 

Shortened Engine Life

Milky oil causes too much rust, corrosion, thermal breakdown, frictional damage, and all those things will shorten your engine life. 

Reduced Fuel Economy

It’s so simple to understand that your engine won’t perform as well with the milky oil as the best as it does with clean new oil. The engine consumes more oil to run when the oil is milky, and that reduces fuel economy. Low fuel economy means a higher fuel cost. 

Higher Emission Release 

Because of higher oil consumption, the percentage of releasing emissions to the air will increase. So the environment will be more toxic, and you and other creatures will struggle for fresh breathing. In the long run, milky oil causes serious health risks. 

Engine Damage

If you don’t flush the milky oil observing these, it can lead to engine failure, seizing, or permanently damage your engine. In that case, repairing will be costly or sometimes requires entire engine change.

How To Prevent Milky Oil 

• Check the engine oil regularly. Every 30 days checking is the best practice to know the oil’s condition. 

• Use manufacturer-recommended oil with the proper viscosity to prevent oil breakdown and keep it in good condition for many days. 

• Must add new oil before the oil goes to lower the required level. You can use a dipstick to check the oil’s level. 

• Avoid running the car under harsh weather to prevent the engine’s hard work. 

• Avoid short trips and reach the engine’s operating temperature for emergency short trips.

• If there is any leakage in the engine that seeps oil, try to fix the leaks as soon as possible. So the external debris can’t mix up with the clean oil. 

• Don’t park the car either and thither. Instead, cover the car and park it in the garage when you don’t drive to prevent water contamination. 

FAQs

How much water does it take to make oil milky?

If one liter of oil is mixed with around 10 ml of water, or a gallon of oil gets combined with ⅓ of the water, the oil will turn milky. It’s an average calculation, as the exact amount will depend on the oil’s type. The more the water, the more the oil will be milky.  

How long can you drive with milky oil?

You shouldn’t run the car with milky oil, even on short trips, as it’ll cause more damage to your engine. 

Does milky oil always mean head gasket?

No, milky oil doesn’t always mean a bad head gasket. There are so many things that can cause a bad head gasket. 

Conclusion

After learning how to flush milky oil from the engine, it’s time to get the job done. The more you are late, the machine will be more damaged with the milky oil running. To keep your engine healthy and tiptop, there is no other option than flushing milky oil.  If you find our words valuable, share this article with your friends who also need to flush milky oil.