McCulla

Oh, I forgot to reply to an important part of your question. We didn't even go at Porsche. My shop is an independent (would that matter?, I don't know, I guess..?) and we just took it directly to the warranty. 2005 car, long way out of factory warranty, I didn't even give it a thought.

McCulla

BTW, my tech is out of the shop until next week, so I have to delay getting his input on my filter dissection.

McCulla

I took my oil filter to the tech that did my lifter replacement and he confirms (as a number of posters felt was the case) that the black material in the filter was indeed the sealer used on the valve covers. Good news. No metal found in the pleats. Thanks for all the responses.

ksdprasad

Same found today on my 2006 997.1 4 model. But they are flakey black plastic. What to do, please advice.

52500k on odo now. Daily driver (almost every day) from last 2 years, put 42k miles on it.

Always change my oil every 5-7k intervals with Mobil 1 0-40w.

Joe C.

Found the same small black and brown small bits of hard plastic in oil filter today. This is my sons 2000 996. Is this the beginning of the seal failing on the IMS bearing? Please advise

cvtbenhogan

This mcculla thread is quite old and don't think he suffered a ims failure.

In the filter pic, there is a shard mid left. I've seen these (4 to 5) in my filter once. I think these were from the chain guide. But I'm not sure. I assume all plastic hardens in hot oil, so cannot say for certain its the ims seal, valve sealant or chain guide. I suspect the latter. Didn't see anything last oil change so I'm not worried.

Suggest you keep tabs at the next oil change and consider a oil test.

997_rich

I think you can tell where the plastic is coming from in most cases. Spray it with some brake cleaner or something to get a better look:

If it's tan/brown and feels hard like a 1950's radio housing, it's likely chain guides

If it's gray or black and rubbery (you can cut it in half with your fingernails) it's likely case/cover sealant.

If it's black and about as hard as a milk-jug cap it could be the cover for the IMS. It could also be a few other things.

Joe C.

Thanks for the replies, I'm trying to post pic he took last night. He will post more tonight after work. About 30 pieces no bigger mostly small than whats on pic and mostly brown.

Thanks Joe

JoeCJr

I'm going to cut open the filter tonight and check on the bits. The tan/brown pieces are hard (don't know what a 1950's radio housing feels like though...). Not sure on the black pieces I will check to see if they are rubbery.

Thanks for the tips 997_rich. Apologies for the thread revival.

McCulla

Cvtbenhogan is right. I did not suffer an IMS failure. The material in my filter was indeed the sealant that other posters thought it was. When I changed my IMS (I elected to do it preventively at a later clutch job) the original bearing was fine. Seals were intact and the bearing ran smooth and turned easily. None of the fragments that I found looked at all like the brownish stuff this picture shows.

Quadcammer

chain guide pad.

Lvt19672

Every thread that I've read so far where a preventive IMS replacement was performed, the original bearing was fine. I find that interesting since it's supposedly an issue with these engines.

JoeCJr

Glad to hear! I am planning to change mine as well soon as a preventive measure.

Thanks. Looks like that's the consensus on the brown pieces, now I just need to figure if I have at least a few more weeks to drive the car before taking it in.

Whether it is a good or bad thing, I've tried to avoid parts of Pcar forums due to the sheer volume of IMS talk. Now that I'm actively doing my research I'm glad to read these types of stories.

Finally cut open the filter and snapped a couple pics. Looking at the black pieces a lot closer it does look like they can be sealant. Looks like I may need to worry about the chain guide pads now though.

Thanks again for all the info in this thread!

McCulla

JoeCjr, I'm not sure why you would have any of the black, rubbery sealant sloughing and showing up at this time..I had the valve covers taken off my car to have the lifters replaced and that's the point at which the sealant showed up (I changed the oil shortly after, IIRC). Consequently, my car had reason to discharge some excess sealant from the replacement of the valve covers. Unless you have had something done recently that took remove/replace the covers, it would seem odd that you would find sealant in the filter.

Lvt19672

Looks like bird seeds if you ask me.