I changed the oil in the 450 last night, I noticed some bits of non-magnetic metal in the drain plug under the strainer. I assume it's aluminum. The peices are almost too big to be called filings, more like little chunks, too big to go through the strainer. Should I be worried or is this normal, after all they didn't put the strainer over (what I am assuming is) the oil pickup tube for nothing. The worse fault is I can't check it again without loosing all my oil... unless maybe if I tipped the machine back on it's rear end but then if there were any more it will probably go back in the tranny with all the oil.

 

Assuming this it not the first time the oil has been changed then something must be going on. I would tend to think that whatever it is there probably isn't much you can do. If you clean everything up good and remove the skid plates you can drain the oil into a clean container and reuse it if you want to check after riding it some.

 

If I drain the oil to check it I'll just put new oil in but not change the filter, only about $10 for 3 L of 10w30. I have no idea how long the oil was in it since I bought it used a couple months ago. The guy I bought it from didn't even know the winch could freewheel so somehow I doubt he kept up on maintenance (oil looked pretty beat). I'm probably just going to run it like i is and let the strainer do its thing, I always change my oil before storing my equipment so I won't find out for another 4 months hopefully. I'm curious about where the aluminum came from though, I would imagine all the internals are made of steel.

 

debris in the oil is never a good sign.