Possibly metal specks on the dipstick, UOA?

[panthermike]

Recently, I believe I see the occasional one or two metal specks on the Corolla's dipstick. I'm guessing this could be a bad thing, right?

I have 2K miles on my current fill of PP, and I'm thinking I may dump it at 3K to get a UOA and see what's going on. It won't take long as I drive 600-1000 miles weekly.

Any thoughts? Is a UOA a good idea?

Forgot to mention the car does have an oil burning issue, about a qt per 1000 miles. Also, sometimes it does ping(less with 91 octane).

 

[saberz]

Which Corolla(your's, gf's?). How many miles on the car?

 

[PT1]

Uh...UOA now. Plus cut the oil filter apart and see what you find. I would also be inclined to get a magnetic drain plug.

 

[saberz]

Grab a kit from BlackStone Labs. Do an oil change but save the oil in a clean container until your UOA kit arrives and then send it off.

Secondly like he said, cut open the filter and inspect it for more metal flakes. How high is the mileage?

 

[Steve S]

Are the specks of metal ferrous?

 

[Turk]

Originally Posted By: PT1
Uh...UOA now. Plus cut the oil filter apart and see what you find. I would also be inclined to get a magnetic drain plug.


+1 !

 

[c3po]

Originally Posted By: PT1
Uh...UOA now. Plus cut the oil filter apart and see what you find. I would also be inclined to get a magnetic drain plug.


A magnetic drain plug and a Filtermag oil filter magnet.

panthermike, just curious as to what oil filter brand you are using.

 

[Nick R]

How many miles on that corolla? Which engine? What is your OCI? Metal flakes might have something to do with the oil consumption too.

 

[BuickGN]

LOL at this thread. You guys really think a UOA will pick up particles large enough to be seen with your eyes? I've been through this before.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: BuickGN
LOL at this thread. You guys really think a UOA will pick up particles large enough to be seen with your eyes? I've been through this before.


I was just thinking about that when I read the first post. If you can see it, it sure isn't in the sub-10 micron range that a UOA samples!

 

[defektes]

UOA would possibly alert the owner to something wrong with his engine thats causing the metal flakes.

 

[panthermike]

Sorry for the late reply, worked alot last night.

The car is my 2000 Corolla, it has 159,000 miles. Also, the 1ZZFE engine.

c3po, the car has a Wix filter on it right now. The magnet sounds like a good idea in the future.

Based on what i've read so far, I'll order the blackstone kit.

As far as the filter, anything cheap I can use, I don't have anything to cut it right now.

Thanks for the input guys.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: defektes
UOA would possibly alert the owner to something wrong with his engine thats causing the metal flakes.


Or it might not.

 

[c3po]

Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
Originally Posted By: defektes
UOA would possibly alert the owner to something wrong with his engine thats causing the metal flakes.


Or it might not.


I agree with OVERKILL here, I do not think that a UOA will tell you everything that is going on in the engine.

 

[panthermike]

I'll just go ahead and do it anyways, just because. It's 22.50 to get it analyzed, if it shows something great. If not, I'll just keep driving the car.

 

[tom slick]

Seems like a filter analysis would be more applicable in this case.

 

[panthermike]

Originally Posted By: tom slick
Seems like a filter analysis would be more applicable in this case.


What do people generally use to cut the filter open? I haven't done it before.

 

[PT1]

Originally Posted By: BuickGN
LOL at this thread. You guys really think a UOA will pick up particles large enough to be seen with your eyes? I've been through this before.


I have found a UOA can pick up the smaller particles unseen. Usually when there are big chunks there have been real small ones for some time. Did have a friend who did a uoa and found contamination from the oil filter. Nothing from the engine.

 

[PT1]

Originally Posted By: panthermike
Originally Posted By: tom slick
Seems like a filter analysis would be more applicable in this case.


What do people generally use to cut the filter open? I haven't done it before.


There are filter cutters but I use Wiss tin snips. Some guys use a hacksaw blade. If you have a sawzall or dremel that will do it.

 

[PT1]

I would also get some really cheap ST dino oil and flush out the engine with some ST filters by doing 2 1000 mile OCI's.