Debris in oil filter

[fredzy]

They look and feel like thin plastic shavings or possibly paint. They do not crush easily or turn to powder when pressed and rubbed between my fingers.

My biggest fear is that there are larger pieces of this stuff that are getting caught in the oil pick up strainer in the sump and could eventually clog it so the engine would get starved of oil.

I was going to guess RTV, but seems more likely to be something like timing chain guide flakes? Weird. I wouldn't be too concerned with it honestly.

I did first oil change at ~1000 mi. For me, doing early first oil change is mostly a feel-good thing, getting the best oil I can into the engine before I really drive it hard. Not really worried about manufacturing debris or anything. That said, I've never seen oil so visibly full of metal ? it was pearlescent. It certainly feels good to get that out. At least it wasn't gassy smelling ?

Per @CTR I thought about leaving factory fill in as I had heard about this Honda "break-in oil" and done some research on it. The TL;DR, as far as I can tell (there is nothing official stated by Honda anywhere that I could find) is that the factory fill is normal oil, but the moly-containing engine assembly lube releases out into it over time. And this aids break-in. By 1000 miles I doubt we're rolling any dice by flushing that out.

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[355]

I finally received my oil analysis result and am happy to say it does not show anything out of the ordinary for a new Honda engine on the factory oil fill with 1,000 miles on it. The only reading that was somewhat higher than expected was silicon which typically comes from gasket maker and sealants but it wasn't crazy high. The viscosity and flashpoint of the oil was already at the minimum for 0W20 though so the oil was well on its way to being broken down and I am happy I changed it. Even though the oil smelled heavily of fuel the fuel percentage result was very low so the sniff test is not a valid indicator of fuel dilution. Also, even though the oil was very black, the particulate count was well within normal limits so poor appearance of the oil is not an indicator of high particulate contamination either.

The engine is still running fine after another 1,000 miles with good power and no strange sounds so it does not appear to have sustained any damage. Unfortunately there is still no indication of what the blue debris in the filter was so I will cut open the oil filter again at the next oil change and hopefully find no more of it. I will do that oil change at 3,000 miles on the new oil and send in another sample to see if it continues to have ordinary results just to be safe.

 

[rui]

I bet the blue debris is just silicone/RTV. ?
It's normal for some to loosen during break in.

 

[355]

I just did the next oil change at 4,000 miles so there were 3,000 miles on the oil and this time there was a lot less blue debris but still a good amount of metal shavings in the filter. The metal was all aluminum though and not steel so that is good. I sent off a sample of the oil to be analyzed and will report the results once I have them.

 

[TypeRD]

Even if all this testing and analysis result in no problems found (fingers crossed), I appreciate the due diligence here. Good job ?

 

[TDI]

I always inspect my oil filters. My Civlc 2.0 has had a disturbing to me amount of metal in the two that I changed out. Does anyone else have a metal producing car?
0-20W oil might be part of the problem, I always ran my non-metal makers on 0-40W.

 

[355]

I always inspect my oil filters. My Civlc 2.0 has had a disturbing to me amount of metal in the two that I changed out. Does anyone else have a metal producing car?
0-20W oil might be part of the problem, I always ran my non-metal makers on 0-40W.

I wouldn't say my 1.5 produces a lot of metal but it is producing more than I expected. So far it has all been small aluminum flecks and shavings and no steel. Also the quantity of metal is decreasing so I am fine with it.

On another note, I received the oil analysis on the last oil change with 3,000 miles on the oil and it looks good with all the break in wear numbers decreasing and no fuel dilution. The oil viscosity and flashpoint temperature were both much better than the original factory fill oil that only had 1,000 miles on it. What is interesting is that my oil life monitor that I have never reset is saying there is still 50% life left on the factory fill oil with 5,000 miles currently on the car and that oil was pretty much done at 1,000 miles according to its oil analysis. There is no way that factory fill oil would still be good at this point in time much less still have 50% more life remaining.

 

[Robo7]

There is no way that factory fill oil would still be good at this point in time much less still have 50% more life remaining.

I appreciate you sharing your findings! Though without running the factory fill oil until the monitor recommends changing it, and then running an oil analysis, this statement can’t be substantiated. Maybe someone else in the forum can validate this? I’m at 1700 miles and oil monitor still shows 70% so I’m not close.

 

[355]

I appreciate you sharing your findings! Though without running the factory fill oil until the monitor recommends changing it, and then running an oil analysis, this statement can’t be substantiated. Maybe someone else in the forum can validate this? I’m at 1700 miles and oil monitor still shows 70% so I’m not close.

You are correct that I can't substantiate my statement, but I was not willing to keep running that factory fill oil after finding all the blue debris in the oil filter and drained the oil mainly to remove any circulating debris from the engine. When the oil analysis came back that the factory fill oil at 1,000 miles was at minimum viscosity and flashpoint, I was glad I changed it.

If one wants to find out the life left in their oil without draining it all you need to do is insert a piece of small diameter tubing down the dipstick hole and extract a couple ounces of oil to send in for analysis. If I wasn't still finding a substantial amount of that blue debris in my oil filter, this is what I would be doing. At this point I feel there has been enough of the blue debris removed from my engine that I will wait until the car has 7,500 miles on it before I change the oil and filter again.

 

[fredzy]

I always inspect my oil filters. My Civlc 2.0 has had a disturbing to me amount of metal in the two that I changed out. Does anyone else have a metal producing car?

Any metal flake in the oil should just be leftovers from manufacturing. That's pretty normal though it usually ends up in the filter and not so visible in the oil pan. It's a little odd that people are still seeing appreciable glitter on change 2+ ?

Like I said I changed out at 1000 miles for no particular reason and was a bit blown away by what I saw. I don't have a picture but imagine this bowling ball except more brown-ish with a little bit larger flakes:

 

[TDI]

Thank you all for the input. I am attaching my oil fluid life report with 8000 km on the oil and, 28000 km on the engine. Before y'all roast me, repeated fluid life reports show the premium oils are good for at least, 20000 km with my type of driving, on all the engines I have tested. So I follow the changes recommended by the car. The first change was surprisingly at 20000, the second had 17000 on the oil and the third 13000. I think the interval is coming down due to shorter trips.
The filter contains non-magnetic flakes that are too small to show in a photo.

 

[CVCC]

At 1007 miles I did my first OC on my 24 HB Sport 2.0. The car was built 7 months ago.

No change on the dipstick so oil consumption if any had ceased. Oil was a dark Karo syrup brown in color and no glitter found in the drain pan. The filter cut open and two aluminum slivers approx 6mm x 1mm and a few small specs < 1mm were found. The magnet rubbed over the opened filter media found a trace of what could be described as splinters <2mm long.

I have a keeper. One trick I learned with my Element is to raise the front only since the drain plug is on the rear of the pan. Almost all of the 5qt jug of oil will fit. There barely 1/4" of oil left in the jug. That's about an extra 16oz of oil.

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