cut open my oil filter and...

Well I guess this thread will be a bit crap until I get the photos up, but I think it looks pretty good. In the whole filter I found less than six slivers of shiny metal, about one mm long and 0.3 mm wide. I also found less than a dozen bits of plastic no more than 0.2 mm in diameter. In my opinion nothing to worry about, but I'm sure a few panic posts will follow. Car has 165,910 kilometres (103,091 miles). The engine was replaced at 52,316 kilometres (32,508 miles), and that was in March 2005. So that's 70,583 miles on a 6 year old motor. I'll take the photos tomorrow in the daylight.

I really hate to tell you this but your engine is about to self destruct!!! J/K I recently changed my oil and put the old filter in a bag to dissect at a later date as I was pressed for time after the oil change. Jasper, what technique did you use to cut open the filter? Is it easy to see the foreign matter in the filter?

I used a box cutter, cut one end off, pulled out the plastic cage inside, then cut the other end off, then slit the tube lengthwise once. It just unfolds like an accordion after that. Really straightforward.

Good luck catching the little kid that put his toy in your oil How long and miles between oil change?

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Thanks

The plastic is most likely from the plastic chain guides that drives the CAMs, not sure why you have silver metal objects that doesn't sound good.

Jasper - I hope you are kidding about finding metal flakes....6 of them 1mm x 0.3mm as Robin said... There should be NONE - I would ask an expert - I have done enough bearing inspections to tell you the degradation rate is exponential

Ferrous or non-ferros??

When I cut my filter open. I found nothing. I even put on strong reading glasses to see better.

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That's the panic I was waiting for The photos are below...I had to look for ten minutes to find the two flakes I photographed. I hear what you are saying but I'm not prepared to believe that a couple of flakes the size of a pin head are an indication of imminent failure. Interestingly, the long flake is not ferrous, the other appears to be. I tried twice, and both times it stuck to my magnet. It may have just been sticking because of the oil, but let's assume it's ferrous. Is it a sign that a bearing is degrading, probably. Is it the IMS bearing - probably, that should come as no surprise to regular visitors here. It is definitely not time to panic, or even be overly concerned. I made this thread to brag about how clean my oil filter was, not to suggest I might have a problem. From the evidence I have I do not. I'm pretty sure an expert would laugh me out of his shop if I presented him with a couple of microscopic flakes and asked if my engine was going to blow up. I'm changing my oil every 9000 km (5600 miles) which is about every four months. We'll look again in the spring and see what we see then.

having small flakes like that is common.... go to rentech and do a search.

That's nothing to be alarmed over. The engine constantly sheds aluminum bits and after going through one or more scavage pumps the metal gets smashed into foil like pieces. (I got some pics of the inside of my 02 Boxster's engine with the passenger side camshaft cover off and either someone went after the inside of the engine with a sander to smooth out the casting seams/remove the flashing or the oil over time has worn those flashing ridges smooth and of course that alum. knocked loose ended up in the oil.) The IMS bearing when it starts to go bad and it doesn't take long to go from 'ok' to bad to failed puts tiny ferrous metal particles in the oil. They are too small to end up in the filter remaining in suspension in the oil filter housing oil. When you remove the filter it is advisable to carefully pour the oil into a clean container and look at/feel the oil for any signs of significant particulate matter, debris. But were that my engine's oil filter I'd not do anything but change the oil/filter and drive the car. Sincerely, Macster.

Aluminum bits = normal, metal = not

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Umm....nevermind. Onward and upward. Next oil change at 175,000!

Follow up... I replaced my oil pan recently and had a good opportunity to look at and work with the sealant to determine if it's the source of the black rubber bits in the oil filter which everyone is always talking about. Long story short...very possibly. I also looked at the old baffles to see if they were coming apart. They weren't. The pictures tell the story. Pic 1 - a long nerd of sealant. It's silicone basically so very soft. This I pulled off the inside edge of the engine case when the pan was removed. Pic 2 - a look up into the engine with the pan removed. Note that the sealant is used not only to seal the pan to the engine, but also to seal the two case halves together. There's lots of it, but there isn't a lot of it coming off. Pic 3 - the old baffles. As you can see they are not deteriorating. This engine has about 65,000 miles on it.