OK, so what is this piece of metal from that I found in my sump????
I replaced the IMS bearing. It was worn and had shed a lot of metal particles into the engine. But the seals were intact and the ball bearings were spherical and smooth. The bearing races were intact also. (It was a real eye opener just how much metal the IMS bearing could shed and still be holding together! I found thousands of tiny steel particles inside the IMS tube. What a terrible design!)
But what had started this process were these two pieces of metal I found in my sump. I originally thought they were 2 separate, unrelated pieces from the IMS bearing. But on further inspection, I can see that they once were a single round disk that has been sheered in half. It is about 5mm across. It really looks like it has been punched out of a piece of sheet metal as the edges on one side are smooth and on the other there is a ridge.
So where would something like this come from inside the engine.
Thanks for the help
