polo 2001 air system blocked

[gazdkw]

Hi,

my 2001 1.4 petrol polo has had a little problem for a year or so now and i can't seem to find the answer to it.

The breather hose from the button of the engine all the way up to the air intake keeps getting blocked up with a white(ish) mayonnaise like substance.

The other week i took all the air pipes off, cleaned them out, dried them out and did the same with the back box breather (which was blocked full) I cleaned the air intake unit because that was gunked up and put it all back together.

The car was running fine but now its getting blocked up again and its sluggish.

My first suspicion was that there was a hole in the pipe work somewhere letting moisture in but iv checked the system by holding one end of the air flow system and blowing through the other (all the way through the engine) and its defo a contained air system.

Have you got any ideas as I'm pretty stuck now :-/

thanks

[WaterWheels]

One of two things. Most common is owner fault from making short trips in cold weather. The engine does not get hot enough to burn off the moisture that condenses in the crankcase and it turns to a milkshake kind of slime. Just like in summer when you place a cold beer on the table outside, it produces water which runs down the mug and makes a puddle, moisture forms in the warm engine in cold weather when you shut it off. To fix the owner fault reason, drive the car for long periods in cold weather to get the engine good and hot even if it means using more fuel than you care to.

The other reason for the build up is a serious coolant leak getting into the crankcase somehow. Blown head gasket is maybe the most common engine failure to cause this, but other things can do it also. Do you lose any coolant and have to top it off every now and then?