missmy993

I changed my oil/filter after approx. 2200 miles (one short season this year) and found little particles of metal in the filter. They are metal as a magnet will pick them up.
I know my picture does not look so different from some of the others posted here but I thought I would add if for the sake of comparision.

The car has 95K miles. Oil is Mobil 1 0W40

After reading other posts I was able to conclude that the metal is normal or it will blow any minute.

I welcome any thoughts and since I have put the car in storage until next spring I will have pleany of time to consider options.

Thanks,

ivangene

I would be concerned about that much metal.....esp METAL metal.....If mine looked like that I would start looking for a smoking gun in hopes of a $2-5k repair and hopefully avoiding the $18-20k one

sorry man, wish I wasn't such a doom and gloomer about it....

leedav

flatbed to dealer is what I'd do

speed rII

Looks like a rodbearing material. Ask me how I know...

It's higly suggested to find out where those flakes are coming.

Take the oilpan off first and check if there is more metal.

Raserperra

Avoid 0W-40! Fat oil help old engines. 0W is for Winter use. OK?

Macster

Absent any noises that signal low oil pressure, absent any knocking or other unusual noises, that few tiny bits of light metal (probably a tiny piece of aluminum that went through the high pressure oil pump which makes bigger (but very thin) flakes of aluminum) doesn't look particularly scary to me.

Relax.

When you take the car out of storage next spring just drive the car a bit -- 100 miles or less -- then remove the filter housing and dump the oil and filter into a clean drain pan and see what you see. What you see or don't see determines what you do next.

Sincerely,

Macster.

ivangene

Macster - he said they are magnetic....aka ferrous

Skotch13

I don't think Aluminum is magnetic

Macster

Sigh. My 02 Boxster just finished 5K miles with Mobil 1 0w-40 oil and didn't suffer any problems, new or excessive noises, oil consumption remained stable at a bit less than 1 quart in 5K miles.

Oh, the engine I have to point out has nearly 247K miles on it.

And I just had my Turbo's oil changed and used Mobil 1 0w-40 this time around. Mobil 1 5w-50 oil no longer stocked by the nearby Mobil oil distributor (I was told they do not sell enough of this oil to stock it) and because it is now special order and takes time to come in I opted to switch back to Mobil 1 0w-40 oil -- and the engine hasn't blown up. The Turbo has 76339 miles on it as of this AM when I filled the gas tank.

Sincerely,

Macster.

fpena944

Macster,

You've not really done much to the Boxster engine correct? What I mean by that is has there been an IMS bearing replacement, variocam solenoid replacement, or the chain pads?

Macster

The engine has not received any internal work save the passenger side VarioCam solenoid & actuator were replaced not too many months ago.

Oh, at around 25K miles the RMS was replaced along with as was the standard operating procedure then (and might still be) the IMS end plate and its 3 bolts were replaced with upgraded parts. The old end plate had an o-ring for its seal while the new end plate had a 3-ribbed seal. The new bolts were micro-sealed to prevent oil from seeping past through the thread spaces and leaking out from under the bolt heads.

Otherwise the engine, the IMS bearing, and all chain pads/tensioners (save the new rails that of course came with the new passenger side VarioCam actuator) are original.

I might add the bad actuator's chain rail pads showed very little wear. The passenger side cams and the lifter tops showed no wear.

There is some luck involved -- hard to say how much -- but I believe a bigger factor in my Boxster engine's long life is due to my very early on in the car's ownership opting to follow a 5K mile oil/filter service schedule.

Sincerely,

Macster.

Macster

Thanks for the correction. Missed ferrous info.

But if the metal bits are ferrous while the bits can't be aluminum they also can't be bearing (shell) material. The metal is still probably some tiny piece of ferrous metal that is nothing serious.

Or it could be something serious: Putting my black hat on the metal could be from a chain (the rollers) which are starting to come apart. This would I believe result in considerable finer metal in the filter and the filter housing oil as the chain's bad rollers would start to eat away at the sprocket teeth along with the chain rail guide/tensioner composite plastic coverings.

I would amend my advice in the earlier post to start the engine and let the engine idle until it is warm. Not fully up to temp, it won't get that hot just idling, but say let the engine idle 15 minutes or so. (15 minutes because I note from my data logging when I have a car in the dealer service department for oil servicing the techs let the engine idle around 15 minutes to get the oil hot enough to check the oil's level.)

Anyhow, let the engine idle until warmed up and then check the filter oil and filter element again.

I would add that while I do not think the metal is anything serious there's always the chance I'm wrong and as such I would advice caution.

So, while the engine is idling the OP should be prepared to shut the engine off ASAP if the engine exhibits any signs of distress, any scary noises, new noises, odd noises, and so on.

But what I said earlier still applies: What is found, or not found in the oil after doing this will determine the OP's next step.

Or the OP could elect to have the car flatbedded to a dealer or indy shop and have the engine's condition assessed by a qualified professional.

Not sure what this would involve. Oil pressure test I guess. A hookup to a PST2/PIWIS and have the VarioCam hardware confirmed to be working. A check of the engine's other vital signs to see if any signal the engine's not at 100%. A listen to the engine at various locations to listen for any still rather faint but significant noises. A check if possible for any signs of leaking around the RMS and IMS end plate.

If the engine were mine I'd want some pretty good proof the engine was sick and in need of this kind of attention before I'd sign off on a partial or engine out teardown.

Sincerely,

Macster.

ivangene

no worries Macster....

iu agree might be nothing but i think pulling the pan if you dont have a magnetic drain plug would be a nice piece of mind sanity check - and it really costs almost nothing to do...just some glue and oil (you can re-use your oil if you catch in clean basin)

No HTwo O

This is one of the reasons I do Blackstone Used Oil Analysis. There had to be tell-tail signs of this many-many months ago and before stuff starts showing up in the oil filter.

speed rII

Macster, when the bearing wear to the max, there is steel frame that starts to wear out.
For my engine, there was no noises or low oilpressure before the bearing failed.
Here is a picture of my main bearings and one rod bearing for rod bearing #5



I would take the oilpan off, easy job, takes about 1h to check what's going on inside.
At this point, if there really is something wrong, OP could save lot's of money if the problem is found on time.