Today I performed my first DIY oil change on my 2010
Cayman
Base (
987.2
) at almost 50k miles (changed after 1year/4k miles). It was much simpler than I imagined, the most time-consuming was waiting for oil to drain and filling up to the correct amount (8 liters went in!). To my dismay, when I tore open the old oil filter, the filter had multiple small specks of metal and also two thin longer metal shavings (see attached pictures). My car being a
987.2
and not having the
IMS
issue, I am a little confused about where it could have came from. Unfortunately, I did not think to check if it was magnetic or not, so I am not certain if it is ferrous or not. The two thin long shavings were quite shiny and light colored so maybe it was aluminum. What do you guys think? Is this normal? or does it signal a bigger issue with the engine?
To me the long shavings look like aluminum and probably from some threads, i.e. say the drain
plug
hole. The others are also pretty bright so again I say AL. Anyway it all looks pretty minor to me. If it were me I would half my
next
oil change, 6 months/2K miles, and recheck. In fact you maybe able to get away with just pulling the filter without draining the oil. I'm not sure that is possible I've never done it. If the same stuff shows up with approximately the same quality then I think you are probably OK. If more shows up, well then I'd be concerned. Good Luck with this.
Get an oil analysis.
Blackstone Labs
is cheap and quick.
https://www.blackstone-labs.com/
Looks like just machine work from Factory to stop seeing this upon other oil changes you may want to drop the pan and clean it out , these aluminum files can float around for awhile. No worries the oil filter is doing its job
I have a
987.1
, changed the oil and installed a magnetic drain
plug
and collected oil for an analysis.....did this at 90K miles, all clean...I used Blackstone for the oil analysis, best 30$ I have spent. You sleep better at night
Glad to hear it might not be an engine issue. Thanks for the tips and relief! Will report back after the
next
oil change.
Sent from my
iPhone
using Tapatalk
Those few flakes are normal to occur. If you had an engine problem, you will have a large amount of metal flakes in the filter and pan.
You can install a magnetic drain
plug
to help pick them up.
My very first post on this forum was the exact same question on my 2007 CS. I had similar glinty and dark metal both. Oil analysis from Blackstone came back perfect.
All I can attribute what I found was that the oil was quite contaminated and black when I changed it shortly after purchasing. That
led
me to believe that the oil was not lubricating well and the car would sit at times for a while from the previous owner. He traveled a lot for work, for weeks at a time.
The metal, I figure was some timing chain and the glinty metal, I still could not determine. The timing chain has the most surface area subjected to constant mechanical movement. The shiny bits, I have no idea. I am too chicken to borescope the motor for now. Maybe when I do the plugs I will look.
Also,
2K miles on fresh oil change. Only 1 spec of metal. It's a mechanical device, so I have to assume there will be metal in the filter.... where it is supposed to be.
