Honestly thought those magnetic oil drain plugs were a gimmick until I pulled one from a 6.7 Powerstroke and found a quarter inch of metal shavings stuck to it.

Ngl, I wasted about $300 on a fancy oil analysis kit last year when a simple $25 magnetic plug would have given me the same early warning on that engine's bearing wear.

3 comments

3 Comments

seth_carr1mo agoMost Upvoted

Oh man, tell me about it... I did the exact same thing with my Cummins. Spent all that cash on the analysis and it came back clean, but the magnetic plug was already covered in fine glitter. Felt like a fool for sure.

abbyk102mo ago

The thing is, they're not really the same kind of warning. That magnetic plug shows you big chunks, which is a very late stage problem. The oil analysis kit finds microscopic wear metals in the oil long before you get actual shavings. One tells you a part is already failing, the other can tell you it's starting to wear. The $300 wasn't wasted if it gave you a heads up months earlier.

blair_green862mo ago

It's like the difference between a smoke alarm and seeing flames in the kitchen. We often wait for the obvious, catastrophic sign instead of watching the small clues. My old truck taught me that the hard way, listening for the knock instead of checking the gauges.