Brass flakes in my oil

[y4m4]

I have a 2012 WR450F that I ride on some pretty technical trails. Lots of low speed and clutch slipping. It also does some road duty between trails.

I changed the oil after about 20 hours and this is what came out of my reusable oil filter. This was my first oil change after buying the bike earlier in the summer. I did an initial change, but the oil looked brand new when it came out. This is my first bike with a stainless steel oil filter, so I'm not used to seeing what's actually inside my filter. Some of the grey stuff is from the dirty cup.

Am I being paranoid?

 

[FORMA MOTO]

Very hard to see in your picture.

Brass/gold color is from crank bushings, clutch shaft bushings, wrist pin bushing, etc.

The most common source is the rod big-end bushings, which are bronzed, and start to get beat up when there is excess big end rod play and wear.

The flakes can be from that, or any bushing. But the gold dust in the oil, which shows up in the drain pan, is from the big end bushings, meaning the crank is at the beginning of the end of it's life. 

Remember, the oil filter is only going to catch particles large than 45microns in size, so the majority of the 'debris', which is fine, and from normal use, will be suspended in the oil.

When you start to get large ferrous or gold flakes is when you know there are problems looming.

Large ferrous flakes are usually from the gears beginning to flake on the mating surfaces.

[y4m4]

On 8/31/2017 at 9:26 PM, THE KRAN said:

Very hard to see in your picture.

Brass/gold color is from crank bushings, clutch shaft bushings, wrist pin bushing, etc.

The most common source is the rod big-end bushings, which are bronzed, and start to get beat up when there is excess big end rod play and wear.

The flakes can be from that, or any bushing. But the gold dust in the oil, which shows up in the drain pan, is from the big end bushings, meaning the crank is at the beginning of the end of it's life. 

Remember, the oil filter is only going to catch particles large than 45microns in size, so the majority of the 'debris', which is fine, and from normal use, will be suspended in the oil.

When you start to get large ferrous or gold flakes is when you know there are problems looming.

Large ferrous flakes are usually from the gears beginning to flake on the mating surfaces.

Yippy. I'm dreading this rebuild: I have a DRZ400 motor and all the parts to make it into a 470 sitting in my garage and I'm too neurotic to assemble the damn thing and trust my workmanship.

Do you think I can get another 10-15 hours out of it? That should carry me through until the snow starts falling in the mountains.

[FORMA MOTO]

probably

[bigl]

On 2017/09/05 at 3:15 PM, y4m4 said:

Yippy. I'm dreading this rebuild: I have a DRZ400 motor and all the parts to make it into a 470 sitting in my garage and I'm too neurotic to assemble the damn thing and trust my workmanship.

Do you think I can get another 10-15 hours out of it? That should carry me through until the snow starts falling in the mountains.

I understand where you are coming from.