Slopeslider

When I changed my oil this weekend, I found some metal in my oil filter. Some of it was ferrous.

I ran it by my indy and his comment was its always scary looking at an oil filter. We discussed retrofitting the IMS. He said I could do it for some peace of mind. He also said since the car wasn't making in rattling noises on cold start that I could continue to monitor for awhile.

I have read everything on this forum from your engine is going to grenade to it normal to have some metal in the filter.

I have had the car for almost a year and a half and this is the second oil change I've done. The first change was with Mobil 0w40. I have switched to Castrol Syntec Edge 5w40. I drive it about 5-6k miles per year. I don't remember seeing metal when I changed the oil about a year ago. Since then, I have done several DE weekends. I had also read that doing some track time may cause this if the car had not previously been driven hard/ that type of environment before. The car has right at 40K miles on it and is a manual.

Thoughts???

JMLavoie

Your DE weekenders might have just disturbed some few ferrous deposits in the pan. The ferrous material in this filter appear to be very minimal.
At my oil change 2 wks ago, I installed a magnetic plug to intercept some of these in addition to filter checks at the oil change.
I wouldn't worry too much if it were me!

Quix

Here's a thread that may interest you: https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...highlight=quix

pfbz

Looks minimal to me... If your worried do your next oil change early and look again. If you see the quantity increasing, drop the pan and evaluate, and go from there.

But my guess is that you are fine.

Slopeslider

Thanks for the input guys. You are making feel a little better except Quix, your post is doing quite opposite. What a terrible experience to go through. Hope you are enjoying the S4! For now I'll continue to monitor and change oil early.

KrazyK

Visible metal particles in a filter is never something you should ignore. It is NOT normal wear. At a minimum, I would pull sump cover and closely inspect the internals. You better pay close attention or you will soon be adding your 996 to the "failure" list.

Slopeslider

Well this has really been concerning to me so I decided to bite the bullet and have the IMS, RMS, Clutch done next week prior to my DE weekend. Quoted $2400 OTD. Sounds reasonable vs. engine replacement.

kromdom

have you done a UOA?

Slopeslider

I have not done a UOA.

halik

Ferrous stuff isn't a wear item IIRC

kromdom

Two of the very first things I did shortly after I bought my car:
* oil and filter change (cut the filter open = was "clean")
* send oil to Blackstone Labs for UOA (results = clean bill of health)

Helped maintain the joy of owning/driving a 996.
P.S. IMS/RMS/AOS lined up when tranny service becomes due (proactive/preventive measures, currently symptom-free).

pfbz

That's seems like pretty good price for the work...

DaveCarrera4

my first oil change looked like your filter, second - nothing. Had installed magnetic drain plug at first oil change. Second change it had very light and very fine "dust" on it. Using casterol full synthetic 5W 50. I'm comfortable (he said knocking on wood).

KrazyK

Its too late for that anyway. Sounds like your making the right decision but I would still identify what the metal was from. IMSB, maybe ok until repair. If its cam wear, game over.

Macster

Depends upon how it came to be.

The engine could have - almost certainly had -- ferrous and alum. debris in the pan.

Hard driving, high g-force cornering coupled with braking and very hot oil for the car's first time at a DE could have a piece of metal debris ingested by the oil pump.

There's not much metal in the filter element so the piece of debris didn't have to be large to begin with. Plenty small enough to be inhaled into the oil intake opening if it got to close to the oil intake pulling in oil for an oil pump working hard to supply 90PSI or more at above 5K rpms.