6 months ago I fitted a magnetic sump plug to our 1999 1.8 Roadster with 40K miles on its clock.
this weekend I did the usual 6 month oil change and was a little shocked to find quite a bit of fine metal shavings on the magnetic sump plug. I also found two 1mm square chunks of metal on there too!
Is this normal? I expected to find a little bit on there but the tip of the magnetic sump plug was covered in fine shavings.
The car doesnt use oil and runs really well.
of course the other thing is if the magnetic plug wasnt there then these chunks would be floating about inside doing all sorts of damage.
I am ver glad I fitted it now!! In fact i might fit one to our family honda also.
I wonder what is inside my engine then? Mine has been round the world and back since it was born!
My fully synthetic oil always comes out clean after the 6 or so months it lives in my engine, I’m trying semi synthetic this time (10W40) just to see what it is like. If I don’t like it then I’ll drop it out and go beck to fully synth again.
I’m putting an oil temp sender in my sump plug for an oil temp gauge, Maybe I’ll get a sandwich adapter in the future and I’ll get a magnetic plug too.
yes I was quite suprised. Since owning the car I have always run it on Halfords 5W40 fully synthetic which has been changed every 6 months.
Although the oil doesnt come out clean each time its fairly murky but then halfords oil never looks like a nice golden colour when its brand new.
Perhaps I should change oil brands? I stick mobil super S 10W40 in our Honda Vtech which seems ok. Wonder if the MX5 might prefer Mobil instead or maybe it makes no difference?
Hi!. The fact that you have swarf on your sump plug does not necesarily mean you have a problem the bits you see could have even been in the engine from build, the oil filter will deal with the contaminants in the oil, unless you have a developing problem. I have striped engines and found loose bolts left in on build . after all it is all done dy someone who is just as fallible as you or I, check on the next change.
If you think that is scary you should try taking the plug out of a mini (the old type) OK they had the gear box to deal but they looked like christmass trees, but to a lesser extent this is not uncommon on most vehicles and some filter manufactures also fit a small magnet in the filter, the other option is to put an old speaker magnet onto the sump to catch any other gremlins.
The oil pump pickup has a strainer, so 1mm pieces of metal would stay in the sump for ever unless they were caught by the magnet (or flushed out during an oil change). Most garages don’t use the sump plug to change the oil* these days - they just suck the old stuff out through the dipstick tube - and this doesn’t get rid of stuff in the sump very well.
*and if you’ve ever had to change the oil in a car with a full undertray like a modern VW, you’ll understand why. Something like 14 fiddly screws just to get to the oil filter and the drain plug.
Don’t worry about the colour. This shows that the detergent in the additive pack is effective. If you use an engine oil flush at each oil change you may find that it takes longer for your oil to become “dirty” after each oil change. The oil in our Golf TDI went black a few days after the oil was changed (less than 200 miles).
Halford’s oil is made by Comma and Comma is owned by Exxon-Mobil. If you visit Comma Oils’ websiste you will see some Mobil engine oils in the Oils & Lubricants products pages. What’s the likelihood that Mobil Super S 10w40 is practially the same as Comma EuroLite 10w40 and Halfords 10w40?
