During my last service x2 small sections of pipe were found in the waste engine oil attached to the magnet sump plug! Link to image: https://ibb.co/FhJpXMP
Does anyone know what this might be from? And how worried I should be? Lol first guess was the oil pick up pipe that looks to be much larger in diameter.
Before/after servicing it appears to be running ok (still daily driving it as it’s my only car right now). Oil pressure is good and engine temp is fine too (compression test pending!).
In saying that you are driving a 27 year old car and it has done lots of miles and the enginge can be replaced if it fails.
I do not think the cost of removing the engine and stipping it is reasonable in this case due to the low value of the engine due to it’s miles.
I would drive the car but accept it may well go bang. I would not drive it on a motorway or dual carriage way at high speed as it may well seize and put you in danger.
If that had been in my engine I’d want to drop the sump and at least have a look for any more pieces of metal. Whatever they are, they have been well knocked about!
Have you dropped a Mk1 or Mk2 sump before, any guide I have seen is pretty difficult. If it does not go bang not an issue, if it does buy a secondhand engine and those cars I think have a real oil pressure guage so it will advise if there is a pressure issue.
Intrested if you have dropped a sump on one of these as I have never had to do that.
No, but if it were my engine I’d want to do so because I have no idea what those fragments are and something has munched them up.
Much of my motoring in my MX-5 is for touring and I do tend to use motorways if traveling any distance. As you say, high speed motoring is when debris might get moved around by the oil.
Having an engine suddenly fail in a catastrophic way on one of today’s “no hard shoulder” motorways isn’t my idea of a good day out.
Does that mean there’s also a bolt and banjo rattling around as well? Hopefully they would now be below the oil-pan baffle and not above.
BUT the biggest worry to me is that a missing squirter-bolt could reduce the oil flow to the rest of the engine!
An endoscope camera fed in though the drain plug hole might be able to see if there are other bits in the sump too big to drain out. An articulated camera (as used inside people) can be bent around to see better.
