magnets and oil filters

37chief · Jul 21, 2018

I watched a video where a guy attached four small magnets to the outside of his oil filter. It will only catch very fine particles of metal. Looks like it doesn't hurt, but I wonder how much good it does? anyone else heard of this? I slipped a cow magnet inside the transmission drain of my MF transmission. Haven't checked it, I am sure it will have some metal. Any thoughts? Stan

kcm.MN · Jul 21, 2018

Had to get into the pump of my snowplow last winter. Part of the design is to include a magnet in the oil reservoir. Yes, it works. Neodymium would be best as it's the strongest, but any good magnet will help catch and hold any metal shavings....provided they're not aluminum.

pete black · Jul 21, 2018

My kubota's hydrostatic fluid filter has a magnet in it. Pretty pricy filter.

jeffcat · Jul 21, 2018

Problem with those Neodymium magnets. They do not like to get hot. It
will kill them. The other thing is to be Vewy vewy carefull with them.
Did get a doozie of a bloodblister when two of them Snapped shut.
Kinda hurt too. Bottom of an oil pan internaly is a very good place. I
also got hold of a drain plug with the magnet built in. Only a tiny
bit of powder fine metal one time. Buy those magnets on Ebay from
Japan if you can get them. They invented them

Mike(NEOhio) · Jul 21, 2018

Can't hurt. I put small disc magnets on the drain plugs of my E4 with epoxy. It had a lot of metal chips from gear-grinding due to a bad clutch.

UncleTom · Jul 21, 2018

I use to build and run VW sand buggies.There manual transmissions had a magnet in the drain plug. There was always very fine metal on the magnet.

jeffcat · Jul 21, 2018

Did you get it from JC Whitney? Hard to imagine that VWs have no oil filter. Just an oil screen under a plate with some little nuts holding it on. You could buy an optional plate with a drain plug in the middle.

DoubleO7 · Jul 21, 2018

The majority of spin on oil filters have the dirty oil flowing against the outer can.
Then goes thru the filtering element to the center and back into the engine.
So it would catch what the filter should catch.
But you would have to dissect the canister to see any results.

Would see results easier if stuck on an oil bath filter housing.

kcm.MN · Jul 21, 2018

(quoted from post at 17:46:09 07/21/18) Hard to imagine that VWs have no oil filter.

[i:8e5ab5ef51]None[/i:8e5ab5ef51] of them??

UncleTom · Jul 21, 2018

The transmisions had the magnetic drain plug. Your right about no oil filter on the engies. We would add a filter on the frame plumbed with hoses to the engine. We also had a oil cooler with the filter. Those motors had the krap run out of them and never hurt one.

D beatty · Jul 21, 2018

I don't know about magnet on filter but use magnet plugs in pans.

Dean · Jul 21, 2018

Just did the 50 hour first service on my M9960 Kubota.

Transmission/hydraulic system has twin suction filters. Filters have ring magnets, both OEM and Kubota replacements.

Something to think about when you buy aftermarket filters.

Dean

hd6gtom · Jul 22, 2018

37. I used to own a tire shop where we also did oil changes. We had a few customers with the magnets stuck to the ends of the oil filter. They always made sure we stuck the magnet back on. I did cut a few of the filters apart and seldom found any amount of filings. Now with a magnetic drain plug, I will admit to finding filings stuck to the magnet. I always made sure the customers knew what we found.

Texasmark1 · Jul 22, 2018

Most full flow oil filters run right at 20 microns. Below 20 is just a very fine oily powder but it IS metal and other things and is sandpaper to your engine. I think that's a great idea and reusable from filter to filter. Since the oil enters the filter on the outer diameter, you have direct access to the contaminated oil. Ebay sells little button magnets about the size of a quarter dollar.

Geo-TH,In · Jul 22, 2018

Stan,
The only way to really tell if magnets work is to try it and then when you change filter cut it apart.

Lightning, electric fields, usually stay on the outside of a metal building even airplanes.

I'm thinking magnetic fields will do the same, stay on the outside of metal can.

Here is an experiment to try. Take a powerful magnet, put it on the outside of a metal soup can. Put metal particles from a grinder inside the can and see if any stick.

I would think it would be better to attach a magnet to drain plug. However only iron is magnetic, other metals aren't.

geo

Texasmark1 · Jul 23, 2018

"Faraday Shield" is the name for the "envelope" around which electromagnetic fields travel, so named for the discoverer.

Iron is a main component of steel.

Magnetic lines of force travel more easily through iron than air. That's why transformers use iron cores.

A magnet won't stick to an aluminum drain pan.

Fringe effect of the magnetic field will catch the shavings, mainly because they are small and when the engine is off, gravity puts them where you can attract them.

Yepper dissect the filter and then put a magnet to the sludge to see what you caught.

Texasmark1 · Jul 23, 2018

Today I was working on my Ford transmission safety switch. Had the tranny cover off. Put the bolts in a magnetic metal saucer stuck to my hood. Plenty of magnetic lines of force made it through the metal surface and grabbed the bolts. Also had a .035 gasket/washer/shim I took off the switch which was my problem and in tossing it in the tray, it stood up on it's end, straight up. I thought about posting a pic on here as I have never seen a steel washer stand on it's edge.

magnets and oil filters

37chief

Well-known Member

kcm.MN

Well-known Member

pete black

Well-known Member

jeffcat

Well-known Member

Mike(NEOhio)

Well-known Member

UncleTom

Well-known Member

jeffcat

Well-known Member

DoubleO7

Well-known Member

kcm.MN

Well-known Member

UncleTom

Well-known Member

D beatty

Well-known Member

Dean

Well-known Member

hd6gtom

Well-known Member

Texasmark1

Well-known Member

Geo-TH,In

Well-known Member

Texasmark1

Well-known Member

Texasmark1

Well-known Member

Similar threads