I found a small broken piece of a part labeled 557 in my oil sump pan - Help ID?
 

Edit: Solved, it is a fragment of my Wix 57211 oil filter that I cut open with aviation snips to inspect the pleats. That is why I didn't see the fragment until much later in the waste oil pan, and I jumped to the wrong conclusion...

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This is from when I dropped the oil sump pan cover to install the EBS Racing baffle. The oil pickup tube had little snakes of sealant in there, and there was also a piece of plastic jammed on the outside of the screen. This was the piece. [Edit: it was not the piece, I jumped to the wrong conclusion, this piece was 7mm a side, the bit I found in the screen was much much smaller) this piece was from an oil filter I cut open] I didn't realize it had a number on it but when I was changing the oil on my mower the other day I saw it as I was draining the oil into the pan and realized it had a number.

It is small enough that I wasn't too worried, but now that it has a part number, suddenly I got very worried :) I have been reading about exploded chain pads; not fun. Also I figured with there being a part number, that would identify the area of the part that was wearing/failing. I figured it was one of the chain tensioners or pads, but none of those part numbers seem to have 557 (as far as I can tell)

So I started hunting around, and found that the oil pickup tube ends with 557. I removed my oil pickup tube when I was cleaning out the sealant, and it looked totally fine to me, with no broken off areas. In my service history I don't see any work done in that area, but then again my history only starts at 60,000 and the I don't believe the sealant on the sump pan was factory. Maybe there was an accident (previous owner drove over a curb and struck the oil pan cover, and it got replaced but the mechanic missed a piece of oil tube plastic?) I am just brainstorming ideas. This fragment looks flat though, and the oil pickup tube seemed to mostly have curved areas.

Does anyone know what this is? or have a new oil pickup tube to see if it has a part number printed on it like this? (called "suction tube") part # 99610707557
It is on this diagram:

Engine Lubrication

Does anyone know of any other plastic parts that have "557" in them besides the oil pickup tube where this could have come from?

thanks,

Steve

PS Searching the various parts resellers for parts containing 557 does not work... blah.. I did find this search that lists every Porsche part that has 557... it is a lot :)

It's your lucky numbers for the 'Pick Three'?

If the motor doesn't blow up then I may use those numbers ;)

Did you consider that it might be "55Z"?

I'm thinking if its not metallic in composure you should be okay. No large particles are okay, but its a good thing your filter caught it.

I did not, back to auto Atlanta to scour the part diagrams...

Thank you,

Steve

I'd be concerned in regards to how do you know this is the only piece floating around in the engine ? Is there more lodged some where obstructing oil flow ? Or what if a piece is stuck in the oil bypass portion of the oil filter ? The oil bypass allows unfiltered oil to bypass the filter when starting the engine cold, if a piece of FOD gets jammed in/under the bypass portion it would not close so it would be in permanent bypass mode. I hope I'm way off base but I'd be concerned.

Exactly my thoughts :) And worries.

Things that do help ease my mind, I have never seen a spec of anything on the filter in 2 oil changes, and also during inspecting the filter in between a change. I just had an oil analysis done by blackstone and it showed all normal amounts of wear metal; nothing unusual except an elevated level of silicon which I believe was due to some excess sealant inside the motor from a previous repair where the person was overzealous with sealant. I have the LN Magnetic drain plug (was clean), and also the LN oil filter spin on adapter which should resolve the drain bypass. And the part number is from the oil pickup tube; that is the only puzzling thing... I think I am going to just order one and see where the part number is to verify if that is what it could be.

Very puzzling (and irritating :) ) and I am not driving the car... blah...

Steve

Uggg I believe I solved this...

As part of an oil change, I unroll the pleats of the filter to take a look. To do that, I cut it away from the plastic end pieces using aviation snips I just took a closer look at my fragment and on the back side it has little grooves and bits of paper glued to it. It also has a round profile above the numbers. It is part of the end cap of an oil filter (Wix 57211). Uggggg all that worrying for nothing. That explains why the fragment didn't appear until later... I measured this fragment and it was 7mm a side, way bigger than the tiny bit I found in the screen. Ugggg well at least it is solved :) I feel a lot better. I am going to take a nice ride at lunch today if the weather holds :)