Originally Posted By: dlundblad
I guess I don't see what a magnet does besides feed curiosity. What exactly is a lot of metal particles on an engine? One may see a nice OCI to OCI comparison if they take photos, but that's about it. You would also need to compare this to OTHER engines under similar conditions with similar miles, daily usage, maintenance history etc. A UOA is the only real way to monitor oil and engine wear. They also have the universal averages on file too.
Also, without the magnet, the particles just go into the filter.
1. An oil filter can only realistically filter particles down to 10 microns and in most cases the particles have to be much larger then that for the filter to catch it. To understand this, look at it this way, if a filter caught everything the oil would not flow through it!
2. A Magnetic plug (lets call it a secondary filter) will catch any magnetic particle of ANY size, no matter how small, an oil filter can not and will not..
Is this necessary?
No, of course not, its not anymore necessary then a Fram Ultra oil filter, KN filter, Bosch or any oil filter that cost more then $3. at your local Walmart. However some people take pride in taking care of things and want what they feel best and it is for those people I would suggest for a one time cost of $20 or less they can add an extra filter that lasts for the life of the vehicle that will filter down to the smallest microns.
Its really that simple and no more thought required.
There are manufacturers that of course use magnetic plugs in vehicles, the manufacturers would not be spending a penny more of anything if they didnt think it was wise to do so. Those same manufacturers do not spend an extra penny on oil filters.
You can google and bing all day long to find out who, here are some, Mercury Marine and most marine engine outdrives,
automobile manufacturers in transmissions and gear cases.
Suburu uses a OEM Magnetic oil drain plug in all its vechicles or most of them for the last 11 years.
Is this why 98% of its vehicles are still on the road after 10 years? No, but it maybe the design mentality to do all they can do that achieves these results.
You can click here
Harley Davidson uses Magnetic oil drain plugs in its heavy weight touring class bikes and in the transmission and primary (and I think most other models too)
Almost all small aircraft piston engines use magnetic drain plugs (not my field, maybe more then small aircraft)
Polaris industries uses them in their ATVs and Snowmobiles and quiet possibly their bikes but can not confirm.
Its easy to confirm the above but most of all their are many more examples, thing is if the part title doesnt have the word magnet in it, it doesnt show up in search results.