I have a 2010 sport with 117K miles and i decided to filter the oil from my last change to look for metal. I have had it since new and oil changes every 3-4 k miles with proper weight Mobile 1 oil and genuine honda oil filters. I have had no issues since new with no work other than normal maint. I drive it mostly as a daily driver and I am no hot rod guy so its driven conservatively. No noises from the engine and it gets close to 40 MPG all the time and uses no oil.

Well after draining oil and filtering it i see under high magnification and bright light shiny glitter in the oil. Ther is quite an amount but not so much as to change the color of the oil. Put a magnet in there and some pieces stuck to the magnet. I am only familiar with old cast iron motors and not newer ones so I dont know how bad a problem this is. I assume I may be on borrowed time but not sure how much of this is normal on a engine with 117K miles. I would have though with good maint I would not have these issues with so few miles.

Mot sure where I can locate another motor if I need to as around here cars this old are all crushed. With new and used car prices so high repairing this might make sense. Rest of the car is in nice condition.

Thanks in advance,

Gary

 

Here are some options.
1) send a sample to blackstone oil analysis. Cheap vs any sort of repair.
2) take the oil to a mechanic who seems like they know what they're doing and see what his face does.
3) watch a few YouTube videos on this topic if you can - when they have glitter they usually show it and you can compare. It's usually bad news for JRGo or Legit Street so they love to show the havoc they've uncovered.

so my experience, oil can surely be cloudy, and frankly a portion of the material IS metal - one reason for oil changes is getting rid of natural wear material over time. I've never noticed glitter large enough to see, except perhaps a little at the bottom after it settles in the pan. So my hypothetical personal reaction would be, to anything beyond a faint glitter under a strong flashlight - I would be calling my dad for advice :P

 

Actual metal bits stuck to the magnet? Time for an engine rebuild.

No way around that one.

 

None of this makes any sense. Nice try though.

 

@mowfixer If, as you say, everything is great except for something that you found, or think you found, in the oil, then I would go slowly. Send a clean sample to Blackstone and see what they say.

Let us know how goes.

 

Feel free to educate me further.
I have had metal bits stuck to the magnet and then the oil tests out fine.
It really depends how big his bits are and that's just not clear to me.

 

I'm with Fujisawa and Mister Coffee. Figure out a way to have an experienced mechanic take a look or send a sample for analysis.

Posting some pictures here might also lead to more useful assistance.

 

You mentioned you drained and filtered the oil.... Is it possible you introduced any kind of debris into the oil, such as dust or something that was in the drain pan? What did you filter it with (and why)? I would look first for a logical explanation before shopping around for a new engine. Consider also that what you're seeing might be normal. If you're looking at it under a microscope you might be seeing particulates that are invisible to the naked eye. Maybe check some other known "good" vehicles and see if they have the same material.

The only time I've seen any metal particles was when I bought my WRX and I changed the factory-filled oil at 1000 miles. I cut open the filter and saw some sparkles in the oil. But I am fully confident if I cut open a filter now on that car or on my Fit or even my Fiero all that break-in wear materials are gone and there will be no sparkles.

Break-in oil at 1000 miles (sparkles might be hard to see depending how bright your monitor is)

 

I agree. Only real way to know for sure. On my cars, I send in a sample about every 20K miles. It is interesting to see how consistent (or not) they are after a hundred or a couple hundred thousand miles.

Don't try to filter the oil beforehand; collect it just as it comes out of the oil pan.

 

^^At the risk of sounding like Captain Obvious, this is the important part. It can be tricky and messy, but providing a clean sample is essential. I would even clean the drain bolt area before unscrewing the drain bolt.