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Brown plastic bits in the oil filter - next steps?
Recently changed the oil in my 1999 996 tiptronic and cut up the filter to find a fair bit of small brown plastic bits sprinkled throughout. No soft rubbery bits and no black bits, so it seems to point to the variocam pads wearing out. Probably not too surprising given its age and about 65k miles. The last oil change was 3000 miles ago and not sure what the filter looked like then - a reputable Porsche indy shop did the job and said the filter “looked good.”
I don’t have a durametric so I’ll have to visit a shop to check its cam deviation, but what are the next steps in general?
If the cam deviation isn’t too bad, keep on driving and recheck with the next oil change?
The wear is only going to get worse with time, so address it now? If so, anything else to do ‘while in there?’ Seems like it’ll be a costly engine out job, from what I’m reading.
The car drives fine, no CEL. Not sure if it’s in my head with the recent findings in the filter but now it does seem to have a bit of chain rattle when I step on the gas and let go. Nothing noticeable on cold startup.
Not sure where you're located but would be good to network and see who has a Durametric to confirm the cam deviations. Typically next steps would be to replace the guides. As the plastic starts to crumble, you're running the risk of clogging up the oil pick up screen which can lead to more problems related to poor oiling / oil starvation.
One thing I've learned with P car ownership is that the car will give you a warning and a few chances to fix things before things really go south. Take this as a warning and act accordingly.
Two changes ago saw the same tiny bits in my filter. My indy said could be tensioner, checked at the next change a few months later ready to see more and saw nothing. Keeping an eye on it before dropping the engine for replacing.
I found about 5 small brown pieces in my sump, I dropped it because I've been having weird low pressure in turn issues. The screen "looked" fine, but I didn't do anything more than look at it. Could I have missed something? Do you have to remove anything to see further up?
I found about 5 small brown pieces in my sump, I dropped it because I've been having weird low pressure in turn issues. The screen "looked" fine, but I didn't do anything more than look at it. Could I have missed something? Do you have to remove anything to see further up?
I found some small pieces of chain tensioner in my sump when I dropped it in November 2018 at 65K miles.
I never saw any pieces in my spin-on filter.(The IMS Solution)
My cam deviations were, and remained, fine and I had no troubles with my car.
I had my engine rebuilt at 82K miles (elective build) and still had no issues.
I believe I could have driven mine as it was for quite a while without any problems.
Are the variocam solenoids also wear items that should be electively replaced at the same time the pads are being done? They’re quite pricy at about 1.7k CDN for the pair, but so is the labour of dropping the engine to access the pads so I’d like to address as much as I reasonably should together.
Replace at same time, or “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it?”
Given the price of the solenoids, I wouldn’t replace them (although I would if they were 10x cheaper, because getting to them is difficult).
However, I would definitely disassemble them and replace their internal seals. I’ve seen photos of people finding green bits in their oil filters, which are pieces of those seals.
08-29-2024, 05:20 PM
Brown plastic bits in the oil filter - next steps?
