tela

Last time I changed my oil I decided to try one of these filter magnets. Wasn't sure it would work but knew it wouldn't hurt.

<a href="http://s18.photobucket.com/albums/b113/telafonic/?action=view¤t=P1090076.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b113/telafonic/P1090076.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Changed the oil again yesterday (after about 5k) and decided to cut open the filter. Here's what I found;lots of tiny metal particles. Doesn't look like much, but when I felt it and smeared it around it felt pretty substantial. The engine has about 184k miles on it.

<a href="http://s18.photobucket.com/albums/b113/telafonic/?action=view¤t=Filter2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b113/telafonic/Filter2.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Oh, and does anybody else ever raise the right side of the car up a little bit to get more oil out? lol

austinado16

The British car that I have runs the transmission as the oil sump so we get alot of metal on our magnetic drain plugs. Many of us started putting "rare earth magnets" on our oil filters with results just like yours.

I like your curved one though because it probably fits the filter better for more surface area contact. Where'd you get it?

One thing to consider is that the filter media man have trapped all those particles anyway. But, I think it's nice to have them permanently held in place incase the filter ever goes into by-pass mode (which there's no way of knowing when it does).

The_Hamster

You just got them stuck to the filter wall instead.

There some available that have magnets inside a flexible piece, so it'll stick to any surface really including various diameter oil filters.

Squirt-Tortuga

Probably true, but this way they don't hinder filter efficiency by clogging element pores.

The_Hamster

That's why we change the filter.

tela

I got it at Griot's garage, but it is a Filtermag brand so I bet it's available from other places.

I'm with Squirt that yeah the filter catches most of it, but these particles were very, very small, and when pushed around they turned into a sort of paste, so I wouldn't be surprised if they made it past some lesser filters. And I changed this at only like 2/3 of the recommended interval.

Squirt-Tortuga

That's fine.. but why argue against an extra $5 safeguard for circulating metal chunks?

The_Hamster

I'm saying it's not necessary and that's why we use the filter. If you want to run one cool, I hope it does wonderful things for you. It'd do more good in the transmission, the auto's have one factory but I am not sure about the manuals.