I thought those magnetic oil drain plugs were a total gimmick, but one on a customer's 6.7 Powerstroke changed my mind.

4 comments

4 Comments

Had a buddy with an old Tacoma that was burning a bit of oil. He slapped one of those magnetic plugs on at his next change and found a scary amount of fine metal fuzz stuck to it. Probably caught a bearing problem way early. Changed his tune on them real quick.

the_jason13d ago

That steel sweater description is perfect, no better early warning for ten bucks lol.

the_michael2mo ago

Man, same here! I was a total skeptic until my own truck started making a weird little noise. Threw a magnetic plug in at the next change and it came out looking like it was wearing a tiny steel sweater. That was the wake-up call. Like lane.drew said about his buddy's Tacoma, it's cheap proof that something's starting to wear out way before it totally lets go. Makes you wonder how many engines have been saved by a ten dollar part, right?

ninal9113d ago

Also, those oil drain plugs don't really work like tiny magnets that pick up everything. They only catch ferrous metal bits, so aluminum from pistons or bearings won't stick to them. That's why finding a lot of fuzz on one is actually a bad sign, it means steel parts are grinding together. A clean plug doesn't mean your engine is fine, just that it's not shedding steel. So it's more like a cheap early warning system for one very specific type of wear, not a magic catch-all.