To start with, I have a 97 Honda Civic DX 5 speed with almost 140000 miles. The car has been well-maintained and before my last oil change I started reading these forums and put in Mobil1 with a PL14459 filter after determining that the engine was clean and healthy-looking through the filler cap. Since I live less than a quarter mile from work I walk and the car is only driven 2 or 3 times a week for trips of 6-20 miles. It's been about 1500 miles and when I checked today the oil was still a nice amber color on the dipstick but when I looked closer there were little black things floating in it towards the end of the dipstick and when I wiped it on paper they looked almost reflective... I checked 6 times and it was the same each time. I understand this is a good filter and oil, what's happening?
Shavings in my oil?
- Thread starter Luft
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Most likely it's just carbon and blow by contamination. The same thing happens to my 94 Corolla except it really discolors the oil in a short period of time. Unless you had a catostrophic part failure in the engine, I would think it'd be hard to even see shavings on the end of the dipstick. You could purchase a magnetic drain plug just for piece of mind to see what metallic particles are actually in the oil.
Alright thanks, that's good to know. I have good eyes but not THAT good and the engine runs perfectly, smooth and strong (at least given that it's 105hp), but it scared me to see STUFF in it. I thought the filter should take care of that. If they're not shavings and won't hurt the engine I'll relax. Thanks!
Why not test it with a magnet? If it is iron it would stick to the magnet.
Ah, but if it's aluminum it wouldn't be strongly affected by a typical magnet. Not that I think you should be freaking out because you found a little scum in your oil - not until you get real evidence there's a problem.
Wipe off the dipstick and dunk it in a bottle(shake the bottle)of fresh oil and see if it looks like that.
Sounds like a UOA may be in order. It will at least tell you what's up at 140,000 miles.
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