Minute brassy particles visible in 911 engine oil

[grogger]

My 993 RS has only done about 24K miles. Of late, when checking the engine oil level with the dipstick, in addition to a smear of oil being left on my white piece of kitchen towel, in the smear I can see what look like a number of miniscule brass-coloured particles. They are definitely gold in colour and not silver or black. The oil was changed about 9 months ago for Castrol TXT, which I believe is a fully synthetic oil. I don't remember seeing the particles before that oil change; I'm guessing that it had Mobil 1 in it when I bought the car.

Any thoughts as to what this might be?

Thanks

Nigel

[warmfuzzies]

It might be worth an oil analysis....sooner rather than later.
That's what I would do if I were in your position, if only for piece of mind.

kevin

[turbobloke]

An oil check would indeed reveal all. Only heard of gold coloured swarf in gearbox oil, from a worn or expired synchro ring. Couldn't possibly be flaking off the dipstick could it? Just some optmistic (or odd) lateral thinking...not sure what that metal / alloy would be

[silver993tt]

SOunds like it might be big end or crank bearing shell residue. Don't these contain brass/copper?

[roygarth]

Nigel, you've got me worried now, I'm off to check my oil!

Check rennlist 'search' facility. This came up on there a while back.

Piers
993RS

[cptsideways]

Opie oils have a test facilty, i think you'll find him on here.

Don't drive it till its diagnosed

[spenny_b]

No expert on Porsche engines, but things like crank thrust bearings/plates are generally made from brass, aren't they?

There's an oil diagnosis place listed in this months Total911 (I'm gonna beat losangeles in saying it.."buy the magazine, it's a damn good read"!) www.youroil.net

[james_j]

It may be contamination in the new oil recently put in.

I don't know whether an oil analysis can tell whether or not may be the case (i.e. if the analysis can tell it's the oil and not the engine), if not, then perhaps changing the oil again and then re-testing may be a good idea before you go tearing the engine apart.

[jamesbr]

My 993 (not RS)engine oil is the same as you describe. I went through the panic phase when I first spotted it and asked my service place (Northways) to check it. They couldn't work out what it was but they checked three other 993s that were in for servicing and they were all exactly the same. I've since read somewhere that it is caused by the dipstick rubbing against the tube (sounds a bit implausable but I'm no mechanic). Anyway, I've since done 7k miles without any problems.

[phelix]

This is fine; a portion of the dipstick tube is bronze and the dipstick, as it goes up and down when you check the oil level, occasionally shaves a bit off.

Search for brass and oil on Rennlist; it comes up quite often.

[turbobloke]

phelix said:

This is fine; a portion of the dipstick tube is bronze and the dipstick, as it goes up and down when you check the oil level, occasionally shaves a bit off. Search for brass and oil on Rennlist; it comes up quite often.

[smug git]so my lateral thinking was literal as well[/smug git]

[grogger]

Thanks everyone; a search on Rennlist did indeed confirm that it is simply the dipstick scraping a brassy element and nothing to worry about. Life is good again!

Nigel