Magnetic Oil Pan Bolts, anyone use 'em?

[PieEyedPiper]

I do, its a cheapy from Napa. Not a very strong magnet, but strong enough to have some metal pieces about the size of the pepper on my salad stuck to it.

My car has 90k miles on it now and I've not noticed any shavings before during past oil changes. Is this normal?

Background info:
Replaced the clutch to a Spec Stage 2+ at 86k miles. Had violently horrible horrible chatter, that was probably hell on my tranny/flywheel/crank until I learned that for any kind of smooth engagement I would have to give the car more gas when engaging the clutch. Since I've discovered this I have been able to minimize chatter.

 

[tryn2getby]

This doesnt sound good to me, my car has a 134,000 miles on it and i also have the same bolt your talking about, and i have no shavings.. In my opinion, I would start using a thicker oil, maybe an oil treatment from a parts store, possibly your shaving a bearing or something... good luck man, take it easy on the car for a little bit if you can, this may lead up to a bottom end rebuild, but i dont wish that on anyone...

Now that i think of it, next oil change, or now, take your oil pan off, clean the inside of it out, make sure there arent shavings just layin in the bottom, inspect the crank and everyhting else you can see, maybe even grab a magnet with an extension and poke around, maybe you'll find something shearing apart. But definitely clean the pan out, bolt it back up and keep checking during every oil change.

 

[andymoraitis]

I have to agree. Shavings aren't a good sign and pulling the pan is the right thing to do. At least if something's going wrong, you can still save the block instead of punting a hole in it. You'll need to pull the transfaer case and drop the downpipe, but it's cheap insurance to make sure that everything's OK.

Let us know what you find,

Andy