pabafree95

anyone using magnetic drain plugs?
theoretically, I can understand how it could work,
but curious to know if any of you swapped out for these?

NA011

My thoughts & questions with magnetic drain plugs are:

1. Does the magnetic drain plug keep the particles from reaching the filter?

2. Does the magnetic drain plug capture the particles that pass through the filter?

3. Does the magnetic drain plug build up with particles until it reaches "critical magnetic hold" and then dump large amount of particles at once back into the oil?

It would appear the best place for the magnet would be the filter housing.

Edgy01

I made my own. Didn't pick up anything worth capturing. I cycle it through perhaps every second oil change. I think there's a lot of non-ferrous metal in these engines so perhaps it won't be as useful as one might hope.

BostonDuce

http://www.magneticdrainplugs.com/index.html

On other cars, the most I get from the engine sump is a coating of fines. You can smear it out on a piece of paper and it looks like a black smudge. No identifiable chips/flakes, and obviously no copper, brass, or aluminum.

In manual transmissions and differentials there is much more ferrous material that's attracted to the magnet.

BD

cbzzoom

Why? Chunks that go through the filter are caught by the filter.

The idea of the magnetic drain plug is that it should grab some of the stuff that falls to the bottom of the oil pan and isn't recirculated through the filter. Supposedly if you take off the pan on one of our engines you will find lots of crud and particles stuck to it.

I suspect the magnetic drain plug is pretty worthless, but I also don't think it hurts anything, so if you like the idea then go for it.

Not only is most of the engine non-ferrous, some of the most problematic/telltale bits are actually plastic.

Minok

I would expect there is already a magnet in the transmission somewhere, whose job it is to attach to metal bits coming off of the gears. My 94 VW Golf had one built into the 6 spd tranny, so I'm expecting this car would (assuming there are ferrous (ie steel) components in the engine... non-ferrous bits would not stick to a magnet anyway).

So having a magnetic drain plug would be redundant.

JEllis

I have one that I purchased from LN Engineering....

Jason

cbzzoom

Minok, I believe that the OEM *transmission* drain plug is magnetic. The OEM *engine* oil pan drain plug is not.

I assumed that OP was taking about the engine, but I see now that he didn't specify.

kosmo

the oil pans on 997.2 are aluminum. would a steel plug eventually strip the threading?

Alan C.

The plug is aluminum with an attached magnet.

Vjgtrybno1

+1 on LN engineering

spurline

I second this. www.goldplug.com was a great source.

I think these magnetic drain plugs are a great idea for all the ferrous particles in our engine.

xupkid2

I talked to Charles Navaro @ LN Engineering the other day about the drain plug. He said it is something that all 997's should have. It is a greatly early warning detection for an IMS bearing about to blow assuming you change your oil on a regular basis and dont wait the length of time Porsche may recommend. Im taking Charles' word and putting one in my car.

pabafree95

when and how do you know if the mag plugs should be changed or maybe never needed?

Edgy01

I clean my mag plug when I change the oil. I rarely see anything on it.