Was doing an oil change today (at -20C!) and after having poured most of a brand new, sealed 4.4 liter container of Castrol GTX 5W-30 into my car, I happened to look inside the container and noticed that there was a fair amount of small black particles at the bottom of the white plastic container. They range in size from just big enough to see to ~1mm in length. The larger particles are long and thin, very much like 1mm long pieces of human hair. As far as I could tell, they're mostly clinging loosely to the bottom of the container- there don't seem to be many/any particles suspended in the oil.
Has anyone out there ever seen this type of thing in new oil before? Any guesses as what it's likely to be? I called Castrol customer service and asked the same questions and was told to drain the oil and replace it, without even taking a guess as to what it might be. Replacing the oil at this point means an hour walk in -20C weather, which obviously is something I'd rather avoid if this is likely to either be nothing important or something the filter will pick up. I just can't recall seeing this in any of my previous couple hundred oil changes.
Thanks!
Has anyone out there ever seen this type of thing in new oil before? Any guesses as what it's likely to be? I called Castrol customer service and asked the same questions and was told to drain the oil and replace it, without even taking a guess as to what it might be. Replacing the oil at this point means an hour walk in -20C weather, which obviously is something I'd rather avoid if this is likely to either be nothing important or something the filter will pick up. I just can't recall seeing this in any of my previous couple hundred oil changes.
Thanks!
