Metal flakes in drain pan

[Testoprop]

Hello btog over the fast 4 months I have driven. My 5sfe camry 6,000km mostly highway.
The last two oil changes 3 months ago and a few days ago have left tiny metal fragments in the drain pan after doing an OCI this has only happen in the last two changes .
Prior to the second last oil change the distributor was replaced and I used a quart of rislone engine conditioner .
Very stumped could this be a sigh. Of bad things things to come ?

 

[Clevy]

Originally Posted By: Testoprop
Hello btog over the fast 4 months I have driven. My 5sfe camry 6,000km mostly highway.
The last two oil changes 3 months ago and a few days ago have left tiny metal fragments in the drain pan after doing an OCI this has only happen in the last two changes .
Prior to the second last oil change the distributor was replaced and I used a quart of rislone engine conditioner .
Very stumped could this be a sigh. Of bad things things to come ?


Take it in. Metal in the oil pan is never a good sign. Catastrophic failure can't be too far away can it.

 

[FL_Rob]

Background on the vehicle is in order.Total mileage ,oil usage... etc

 

[jrustles]

I've driven a 5sfe powered Toyota for 5 years, and have run the engine just about as hard as I could legally, and have never seen metal flakes in the oil. I did install a little magnet on the oil filter inlet, which caught some fine ferrous dust, but never flakes.

 

[The motor guy]

[censored] I saw metal on the oil drain plug of my truck. Only saw it once though. It was more like a paste. Only happened once.

 

[Testoprop]

The car has 280,000km on it cane into my possession. With 180,000km since then I have changed the oil every 5-7500km
Recently the vcg was taken off and was extremely dirty inside no sludge just heavy varnish and baked on carbon .
The car must of been neglected it still runs completely fine .
The oil use age is very minimal 1/2 quart every 5000km

 

[Donald]

Did you make sure they were (ferrous) metal by putting a magnet near?

Its possible the metal was there with varnish and carbon and now is getting cleaned out.

While not a great thing to find in oil, until I found something else wrong to connect it to I would not let it stress me.

 

[Testoprop]

Thank you I am in the same way thinking the gunk and varnish gas held the metal in suspension

 

[oggb]

Doubt it's metal. If you had metal flakes in the pan you'd be hearing one awesome drum beat from the engine by now.

 

[Testoprop]

The motor does sound noisy by drum beat what are you meaning?

 

[mechtech2]

That Rislone may be the cause.

 

[jegs]

Cut the filter open and post some pictures.

 

[skyship]

For those no familiar with Rislone here is a description:
Rislone snake oil info.
It seems to be similar to Moo oil, a common drive around flush.
As the metals flakes have been visible for more than one OCI it does sound serious and is unlikely to be just a case of some old sludge being dissolved.
Firstly I would not use any kind of drive around flush, but just change up a grade to a thicker major brand HM oil (If the book says X/30 then use an X/40 etc) and keep the OCI's short. If you want to spend money or time on the problem, then drop the pan and clean the sump and oil pump pick up screen.
It would be interesting to know which oil you have been using.

 

[skyship]

Originally Posted By: jegs
Cut the filter open and post some pictures.


That would be interesting to see, as it would confirm that this is an impending main block failure. If the engine is not smoking then it sounds like main bearings.

 

[Testoprop]

There isn't much buildup to worry about its more varnish
I did cut the filter open the other day and found zero metal flakes inside

 

[skyship]

That's odd you found no metal particles in the filter, just in the sump. If the engine is not burning oil or rattling badly then you just might be lucky that this is old debris that was stuck at the bottom of the sump from some previous failure before you purchased the car and was loosened up by the solvents. It's still odd not to find some of the metal flakes in the oil filter.
It would be interesting to do a UOA next time to see what the engine is doing in wear metal terms.

 

[Falcon_LS]

Welcome to the boards. What oil/filter combination are you currently using? More importantly, did you check your oil pressure?

Heavy varnish in the cylinder head is pretty common the 5S-FE. Shell Helix Ultra does a good job of keeping the heads clean, which is something you might want to consider if you plan on keeping the car for a while.

 

[INDYMAC]

UOA is a must at this point. I suspect that you have a bearing starting to fail. But if you don't know what metals you are seeing in the drain pan, then a bearing inspection or UOA would confirm the source.

 

[Falcon_LS]

Originally Posted By: INDYMAC
UOA is a must at this point. I suspect that you have a bearing starting to fail. But if you don't know what metals you are seeing in the drain pan, then a bearing inspection or UOA would confirm the source.


I second that. I'm thinking the oil pump may be starting to fail, causing excess bearing wear.

 

[Testoprop]

If the oil pump was the problem wouldn't the oil light be on during highway driving?