Any danger with magnets and electronics
- Thread starter OLEJOE
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And why do you want to do that?
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Magnets that powerful will cause you some unpredictable issues with install/removal. There are zero benefits on that particular engine. However, if you must, then use these: https://www.harborfreight.com/10-piece-rare-earth-magnets-67488.html?_br_psugg_q=magnets
Put like 20 of them in a matrix on the side of the oil filter. You will have to flip them during install so they stay attracted to each other. Not fun, time consuming, with minimal benefits. It's much easier to just install a magnetic drain plug, and call it a day. Look at PPE for that.
Put like 20 of them in a matrix on the side of the oil filter. You will have to flip them during install so they stay attracted to each other. Not fun, time consuming, with minimal benefits. It's much easier to just install a magnetic drain plug, and call it a day. Look at PPE for that.
I actually got the magnet I have from HF. The magnet is big enough around that it’s pretty easy to my fingers up under it because of the bevel on the bottom of the filter. Was curious about it causing any issues because the pressure sensor is on the filter mount and the electronics on these trucks is already kinda wonky. With the amount of issues different people are having with these trucks, I barely feel comfortable changing the oil and all of the filters.
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If the oil pressure reading is the same with and without the magnet on the filter, and it's easy for you to install and remove, then you got nothing to worry about.
Too far from most things. Only things that might be impacted are any sensors that use halls, and even then, these days they have algorithms to deal with offsets like this.
I tend to think of these as being little help on the outside of the filter, as the steel can is going to carry most of the flux and bend it back towards the magnet, with little left getting through. BUT if it's strong enough, it can saturate and allow field lines through. Won't hurt. But a magnetic drain plug would go much farther.
I could be wrong; you could always cut open a filter, leaving it in a round can, and put the magnet on. Get a screwdriver or similar ferrous item, and on the inside, see if youcan feel anything. If you can, then it might do something--if not, then I was right.
I tend to think of these as being little help on the outside of the filter, as the steel can is going to carry most of the flux and bend it back towards the magnet, with little left getting through. BUT if it's strong enough, it can saturate and allow field lines through. Won't hurt. But a magnetic drain plug would go much farther.
I could be wrong; you could always cut open a filter, leaving it in a round can, and put the magnet on. Get a screwdriver or similar ferrous item, and on the inside, see if youcan feel anything. If you can, then it might do something--if not, then I was right.
On the inside of the filter? if so, not bad.
Magnetic field drops off very quickly. It's not proportional to distance, it's distance squared. If you feel the force at 1mm away, then move to 2mm away (doubling the distance), field drops off by a factor of 4, not 2. That's why if you hold onto a magnet and try to stick to the fridge, a few inches away is no effort, but as you get closer and closer, it becomes very hard, right up until it flies out of your hand.
I think it would work to capture smaller surface area since the oil may push bigger pieces off but this is a strong magnet so it may do better with bigger pieces too. It would be great if you could measure up the before & after particle counts to see if there's any difference for what the magnet may do.
Every magnet I've used, even ones I'd consider not very strong, leave some evidence on the inside of the can that they captured some super fine ferrous metal particles. The strong magnetic drain plugs I use always have some ferrous material on them too.
I’ve run a magnetic plug on my 08’ Silverado for years and it always has particles on it. 168K miles and still can’t hear it running. Zero oil consumption and still running the factory water pump and hoses.
Wouldn’t the media in theory typically catch that though? Most canisters filter flow from the outside in, so seems to just be catching stuff before the media could. What is the benefit?
Makes sense to me—better to use a magnetic plug and catch the metal before it goes through the oil pump.
The drain plug make sense to me. If it is in the oil sump then it will have to go through the engine before getting filtered or it is something the filter wasn’t able to capture it.
The ferrous material that a magnet catches is typically too small to be effectively captured by the oil filter. Particles that small can still cause some engine wear. Mitigating engine wear is about capturing debris as soon as possible to prevent it from circulating over and over through the oiling system. Most of the debris that a magnet catches probably made a few trips through the engine before being captured. But that is better than those particles going around and around through the engine for the entire OCI. A magnetic drain plug is obviously easier to monitor than magnets on an oil filter since the filter would need to be cut open to see the magnet's affect.
Interesting. I see what you mean. Just seems like it is difficult to quantify if it is truly working or not in the canister form. With the drain plug it is easier as the drain plug wouldn’t catch anything if it was not magnetized. The problem with the filter is, would it be trapped or not without the magnet? I’m not the type of person that would try to take measurements of the particles to find out. So it seems like a high effort, low reward venture to me. I’ll definitely agree that can’t hurt anything, so it only has potential benefit.
The purpose of a magnet is to catch the ferrous material that the filter can't catch. In order to see the effect of magnets on a spin-on filter, the filter needs to be cut open to inspect what was captured.
Like said earlier, most of the particles that a magnet catches are too small for a typical efficiency automotive oil filter to effectively catch. A high efficiency filter (99+% @ 20u) may catch some of them. You know some of them are getting through the filter because a magnetic drain plug will not catch ever ferrous particle the instant it shows up in the sump, so some of them must circulate some through the oiling system before being captured. Buying a good magnetic drain plug and installing it during the next OCI isn't very "high effort" IMO.
I've used magnetic drain plugs for years, every single engine always had ferrous fuzzies on it, V8's typically had twice the amount of 4 cylinders on the magnet. I've also used old hard drive magnets on the outside of the filter, that also works pretty well.
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