Anyone currently using an oil filter magnet? I stumbled across this when I was looking at "oil filter reviews." The logic behind this product makes a lot of sense. Hoping to get the community's thoughts on this. There appears to be two types of oil filter magnets (internal vs external) by two or three companies. External oil filter magnet by FilterMag. Their Gen2 Prius external oil filter magnet (PN SS250), currently runs $58.58 ($49.16 + 9.42 shipping) in Amazon. Their magnets are rare-earth neodymium. They make other size oil filter magnets, and have these big square magnets for different applications. Internal oil filter magnet by GWRAuto and Magna-Guard. These two companies seem to have identical products; perhaps someone else is making their magnets for them. Theses internal magnets are ceramic based. GWRAuto provides a solid rational basis for an internal oil filter magnet over an external. The major drawback I see with internal magnets, is the inconvenience and mess with retrieving the magnet. Who really wants to cut apart a used oil filter? Cost for internal magnets are: GWRAuto ($19.95 + shipping, for a set of 10 magnets) and Magna-Guard ($7.99 for mini size on Amazon; cost of full size is unknown) Those of us who currently have a magnetic drain plug, it would seem that an oil filter magnet would do a much better job at capturing most of the metal particles in the engine oil. Add a magnetic oil drain plug, and you'll further decrease metal particles from floating around in the engine oil.
While anything that removes metal particles from the oil has to be a good thing the filter should be capable of that job if they get that far, but any extra precaution cannot be bad. The sump plug magnet possibly protects better because this helps stop particles going through the oil pump. As this is positioned between the sump and the oil filter and is thus vulnerable to damage from such particles. Having as it does tight clearances between both the rotors and the housing. John (Britprius)
A bypass oil filter (like frantz oil filter) is an alternative (and maybe a better) solution for better oil filtering. But it could be not so easy to install. GT-I9000 ?
