Shavings in Engine Oil!!!

hi GUYS, I just did an oil change on the mk4 jetta, and the oil i took out was all sparkly, obviously had alot of shavings in.. The last oil change was done right around 7500 miles ago in February, the oil looked fine then and i ran Valvoline MST spec 505.01 as required.. Any ideas what could be going on? Do i dare keep running it or should i be tearing into the engine to try and see whats wrong?? The car has 139k miles on it

Run a magnet through it, does it stick to it?
Pull your valve cover and check your cams and lifters, see if the lifters are cupped and/or cam chamfers are worn off.
If so then you need new cam, lifters and cam bearings.

Uh, no good. The turbo suffered the most from those shavings.
Are they ferrous or not?

Henrick said:

Uh, no good. The turbo suffered the most from those shavings.
Are they ferrous or not?

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No, the oil filter will stop visible particles but they will remain in the pan.
The oil pump may suffer, though.

Shavings won't hurt that pump, chunks might. Seems you want to determine where the shavings came from. How long have you owned the car? Are they ferrous or non?
At least inspect the cam components, do a pre-emptive oil change, maybe 2 or 3k miles. They could have been in there a while.
Watch for any low oil pressure warnings.

I've seen a lot of oil that appears to have the metallic particles in it, but it's really not. As mentioned, determine if it really is or not.

csstevej said:

Run a magnet through it, does it stick to it?
Pull your valve cover and check your cams and lifters, see if the lifters are cupped and/or cam chamfers are worn off.
If so then you need new cam, lifters and cam bearings.

Click to expand...

Thanks guys, This was the second oil change i did on the car, as i said didnt notice anything before but i could have missed it i guess.. i wish i would have kept a sample of the oil in question but it was one of those days when its after midnight and your leaving in a couple hours on a trip, i just didnt take the time to find a clean container.... Whats a ballpark figure for cam, lifters and bearings and what causes them to go out? The previous owner is my buddy, he says he always ran 505.01 in as well so doesnt seem like the oil should have been a factor

I may be mistaken, but that oil I thought was determined by concenous not to be able to withstand the pressure exerted by the cam on the lifters.
I'm sure I will be corrected if wrong but a lot of people use mobil turbo diesel and rotella t6.
You can check with the online vendors here for the cam kits.
IDParts.con,

Metalman.com,

Below is member franko6 info, considered to be the head guru on this site.
Frank's VW TDI's, LLC
1007 Olive St.
Lockwood, MO 65682
417-232-4634
FranksTDIs@sbcglobal.net

Check out there sites or contact them and see there prices, STAY AWAY FROM BUYING PARTS ON EBAY with these parts. Just my .02.
Please keep us posted.

That's not a CJ-4 spec oil. Not sure why you're running it: I suspect that this will be the last time you'll run this in a diesel. Delo 400 LE 5w-40, Rotella T6, there's a lot of really good oils (and inexpensive too).

Wow, I was told by an independent VW/Audi specialist that's what I should be running, anything with the 505.01 spec... Im a little confused why he said that, and why the previous owner was told the same thing... Is CJ-4 a higher spec oil?

You believe everything vw says ; )

I just read GOfaster's article under the lubricants section which says all PD engines need 505.01.... My ride is an early 05, which would be a PD right?

505.01 oils come in 5W30 and 5W40 weights. The general guess here is that the 5W30 is too thin to protect the 20% narrower (vs. ALH) cam lobes. He may have been running the 5W30 505.01 oil.

Well...

http://www.myturbodiesel.com/wiki/engine-oil-list-for-tdi-diesel/

Older TDI engines up to 2003 in North America could use more common diesel engine oil. VW 505.00, API CI-4, API CH-4, or API CG-4 all can be used in these engines in addition to pumpe duse approved oils.

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That page has a link to a VW TSB listing PD oils and the Valvoline is listed there. So... OP's use of this oil is technically backed up by VW.

I've only bothered to go by CJ-4 designated oils for my cars (and everything else diesel I run- I have no PD engines).

csstevej said:

I'm sure I will be corrected if wrong but a lot of people use mobil turbo diesel and rotella t6.

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There is a great thread on here somewhere regarding PD engine oils. A bunch of PD engine members did the Blackstone oil change analysis, and then one of the guys compiled all of the data and listed the oils by how they performed.

The Mobil 1 TDT 5w40 and Shell Rotella T6 were the two best performers of the bunch, and if I recall correctly, neither one carries Volkswagen's rated specification.

Not a 100% controlled environment test by any means, but enough real world test evidence piled together that the results were promising enough for me, and most other PD engine owners on here.

On a side note...one has to be a little bit careful when reading and researching lubricant information on here...always check the dates on the threads. Some of them are getting pretty old now, and the info in them has become outdated.

[OP has a 2005] I swear, seems I'll never get it through my thick head that MKIVs also had PD engines! (I see MKIV and always think VE engine; when I think of PD engines I think of MKVs)

Please, pretend that I was never here!

UhOh said:

[OP has a 2005] I swear, seems I'll never get it through my thick head that MKIVs also had PD engines! (I see MKIV and always think VE engine; when I think of PD engines I think of MKVs)

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Oh...you can put anything in an ALH...lol.

A lot of 505.01s are garbage and are causing the cam failures IMO.

Ok thanks, surprises me if that actually caused cam & lifter failure, but I guess its possible.. ill be running T6 from now on prolly! Another question, could these indicaters of something wrong in the oil have something to do with decreased fuel economy? when it was out in Texas it was consistently averaging 42-48 mpg, and since ive got it I have yet to get over a one time high of 44, and that was mainly interstate with cruise set @ 62 mph. it doesn't seem to have the power it used to either, could there be a connection?

Worn cam lobes could be cause of lower power/mileage (and "shavings") but until you actually inspect and/or document that you have cam wear problems it's all speculative.
Have you truly had the "shaving" particles seen in the drain oil verified?
IF I had a PD engine (doubt I ever will) it would never get the 5w-30 spec oil in it.

Guess ill see how this oil comes out in a few more miles, and go from there.. hopefully any damage isn't too extensive, ill try to keep you guys posted..

I don't see where you have inspected the cam and lifters.