Magnet on sump
Author
Discussion

dirky dirk

Original Poster:

3,446 posts

200 months

Sunday 24th April 2022
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Does anyone do this?
Have you found it’s been a good idea and caught a few bits of floatsam and jetsom?

mickyh7

2,347 posts

116 months

Sunday 24th April 2022
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Most debris will be Aluminium or Gasket bits.
Not very attractive to a Magnet!

E-bmw

13,476 posts

182 months

Sunday 24th April 2022
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You can buy magnetic sump plugs for just a few £ but I would not recommend putting a magnet on the sump.

Evoluzione

10,345 posts

273 months

Sunday 24th April 2022
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How are you going to see what it caught? The filter does the job. If you need to do more then fit a mag drain plug or a mag filter.

VanDiesel99

176 posts

98 months

Sunday 24th April 2022
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I can't remember ever finding metal debris in my engine oil, even though my last car had nearly 300k on it when I sold it; so a bit pointless. If you do however have such debris, maybe a new car would be in order.

mickyh7

2,347 posts

116 months

Sunday 24th April 2022
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Most 'Debris' in the sump is from the manufacturing process.
Mainly Casting Sand and a little Aluminium swarf.
Removed during the first oil and filter change.
Steel debris is found in gearboxes, diffs etc.
Just don't worry about it.

E-bmw

13,476 posts

182 months

Sunday 24th April 2022
quotequote all
Evoluzione said:
How are you going to see what it caught? The filter does the job. If you need to do more then fit a mag drain plug or a mag filter.
The filter cleans the oil on the way round the engine, anything then washed out as the oil passes through ends up back in the sump. Obviously any magnet will only catch ferrous particles, of which there should be very minimal amounts if all is well.

paintman

7,860 posts

220 months

Sunday 24th April 2022
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If you have a magnetic sump plug in the engine you may well find a paste like substance stuck to it.
As the various steel bits inside wear away, the worn away stuff has to go somewhere. Usually the filter will pick most of it up.

Gearbox & diff ones tend to look more spectacular due to the lack of filtration.

If you find big chunks of metal then you have a problem!

Evoluzione

10,345 posts

273 months

Sunday 24th April 2022
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E-bmw said:
Evoluzione said:
How are you going to see what it caught? The filter does the job. If you need to do more then fit a mag drain plug or a mag filter.
The filter cleans the oil on the way round the engine, anything then washed out as the oil passes through ends up back in the sump. Obviously any magnet will only catch ferrous particles, of which there should be very minimal amounts if all is well.
Thanks for the 'How an engine works' lesson.

Smint

3,645 posts

65 months

Monday 25th April 2022
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Best way to drain will always be removing the sump bung, done with a hot engine anything in the sump will flow out with the hot oil.

Used to be magnetic sump plugs on BL transverse engines, these always collected steel particles but the gearbox shared the engine oil so to be expected, don't think i've ever come across a magnetic engine sump bung on anything else i can recall.