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Are the magnetic drain plugs THE solution?
I don't think so because the interval between checks of the drain plug is less than the interval between beginning of failure and boom. What is that interval? Less than 500 miles and no one is going to check the plug (or the filter) that often.
Install drain plug ... drive a while ... failure starts ... IMS sheds ... parts collect on plug ... boom happens ... your next 3k (or whenever) check was scheduled to happen and you would have caught it if the 5th item was before the 7th. But if it wasn't (and there is a better chance it wasn't) your plug may not have done anything for you. Now if you detect around the 4th to 5th item, then any ferrous bits may have been trapped by the plug and saved from ingestion. So I'm not saying the item is useless, just that its chances of helping you are the product of the probability of IMS failure in the first place times the probability that your check was in the right interval. My guess is that total is about 1/10 of 1% per car year.
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