Metal Savings In Oil @ Oil Change

[pointdog]

Hi, 1st post and do not work on my 2002 4Runner myself. The truck has always used synthetic oil as told by the orig. owner I bought the truck from. And I used that oil the whole 6 years I've owned the vehicle. At the last 2 oil changes (from a backyard guy, I live in a rural 3rd world area) he has seen (and shown me) metal shavings in the spent oil he has just drained. It looked like brass dust, pretty fine. He said the crankshaft bearings are going. There's no unusual noise or any other disconcerting factor.
- How serious is this? At this point?
- If I do nothing, what will happen?
Thanks in advance from a non wrenching newbie:shocked:

 

[diverscale]

Hi, 1st post and do not work on my 2002 4Runner myself. The truck has always used synthetic oil as told by the orig. owner I bought the truck from. And I used that oil the whole 6 years I've owned the vehicle. At the last 2 oil changes (from a backyard guy, I live in a rural 3rd world area) he has seen (and shown me) metal shavings in the spent oil he has just drained. It looked like brass dust, pretty fine. He said the crankshaft bearings are going. There's no unusual noise or any other disconcerting factor.
- How serious is this? At this point?
- If I do nothing, what will happen?
Thanks in advance from a non wrenching newbie:shocked:

We don't have enough information.

Maybe the pan where he drained your oil in was already full of metal shaving because he did drain his lawn tractor oil, a month ago in there.

You would have to get a oil sample, and send it to blackstone and get it analysed to get a definitive response.

 

[Toy2play]

Hi, 1st post and do not work on my 2002 4Runner myself. The truck has always used synthetic oil as told by the orig. owner I bought the truck from. And I used that oil the whole 6 years I've owned the vehicle. At the last 2 oil changes (from a backyard guy, I live in a rural 3rd world area) he has seen (and shown me) metal shavings in the spent oil he has just drained. It looked like brass dust, pretty fine. He said the crankshaft bearings are going. There's no unusual noise or any other disconcerting factor.
- How serious is this? At this point?
- If I do nothing, what will happen?
Thanks in advance from a non wrenching newbie:shocked:

I just came across of a video of a guy sending his used oil to get analyzed from a company called black stone. It has been mentioned before several times on this forums and might give you a better idea of what's going on. I just requested a kit from them free of charge and you pay 28 bucks for them to analyze and they can tell the different type of metal shavings and so on that us in the oil This way you can know for sure instead of guessing.

Google blackstone labs to find the site.

 

[bugman-74]

I also agree with the blackstone comments - its about the only way to get some definitive data without tearing into the engine. I had a similar episode a while back, where I could've sworn I had a bunch of glitter in the oil... Oil analysis told me it was nothing to worry about.

You will want to run the oil for at least 1K miles before sending in a sample.

Additionally: You could also cut open you old oil filter and check for wear metal debris.

 

[pointdog]

Thanks for all the responses. The Black Stone test via mail sounds good but I'm living deep in Mexico and the cost would be way beyond the $28 to send via private carrier. I'm going to Google and then contact them if it seems feasible (adding in cost of getting the test kit down here). Also the fact that my guy's plastic tub may have been contaminated before my oil went into it is a definite X factor.

 

[gamefreakgc]

These engines hold up pretty darn well, metal shavings in the oil is not very common at all. If analysis is not feasible for you, just keep driving. It's not going to blow up in a massive fireball, it'll just start to lose power bit by bit and eventually start showing more serious issues if it is indeed the crankshaft. But it's very, very uncommon for these engines to have bottom-end problems like that.