Starange objects in sump

Just removed the sump from my Defender 200tdi to sort out an oil leak from sump gasket.
Whilst off I discovered these items, all plastic, the circular ones appear to be broken washers, anyone help identify where they can from.

What size are the round ones?

Around the size of the old half penny

johnlad said:

Just removed the sump from my Defender 200tdi to sort out an oil leak from sump gasket.
Whilst off I discovered these items, all plastic, the circular ones appear to be broken washers, anyone help identify where they can from.

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Guessing at bits of the crankcase breather/cyclone system.

Turboman said:

Guessing at bits of the crankcase breather/cyclone system.

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So what in terms of damage will/has it done?
Car runs fine doesn’t appear damaged.

johnlad said:

So what in terms of damage will/has it done?
Car runs fine doesn’t appear damaged.

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Probably not much. They will have gone down the galleries into the sump, and won't get past the strainer on the oil pick up to go back up.

Poke your finger in the drain plug hole, see if you can find any more, or remove the sump and have a look if you are bothered about it.

Quite likely you will find a few caps off the valves down there as well, and they are made of metal!

Turboman said:

Probably not much. They will have gone down the galleries into the sump, and won't get past the strainer on the oil pick up to go back up.

Poke your finger in the drain plug hole, see if you can find any more, or remove the sump and have a look if you are bothered about it.

Quite likely you will find a few caps off the valves down there as well, and they are made of metal!

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Already removed the sump, to re seal, that when I found them. No pieces of metal though, thankfully

johnlad said:

Already removed the sump, to re seal, that when I found them. No pieces of metal though, thankfully

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OK. I assumed you found them in the bucket after oil drain.

I think someone was doing some work with the rocker cover off. The reason I asked about the size was that those are about the size of the insulating washers I had to take off when removing all the bonnet chequer plate on my first 110.

Turboman said:

Guessing at bits of the crankcase breather/cyclone system.

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I didn't think that there were any bits inside the breather - that it worked simply by virtue of its shape?

My guess was sloppy work with the rocker cover off, and was going to ask if the bonnet had chequer plate on it - my 110 came with it and it had washers like that under the countless screws I had to take out to ditch it.

It is worrying to think that the smaller bits aren't present because they have already been sucked up thru the strainer - been ground even finer by the oil pump - thru the oil galleries into the crank that feed your crank's bearing shells , up into the squirters for cooling the pistons under skirts , coated the camshaft and finally blocked the oil filter - but nothing I would be too concerned with as imagine if those big bits got in

As a test take the stuff you got out and see if they all fit together to resemble the offending bits that are under suspicion here

Just joking - I think

boguing said:

I think someone was doing some work with the rocker cover off. The reason I asked about the size was that those are about the size of the insulating washers I had to take off when removing all the bonnet chequer plate on my first 110.

I didn't think that there were any bits inside the breather - that it worked simply by virtue of its shape?

My guess was sloppy work with the rocker cover off, and was going to ask if the bonnet had chequer plate on it - my 110 came with it and it had washers like that under the countless screws I had to take out to ditch it.

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There weren't any bits in the breathers on 2.5 TDs, but over time, the sytems got more complex, with plastic cyclones and oil separators.

In any case, I did say guessing, the bits could have been dropped in by someone while setting the tappets or similar.

Doesn't really matter, they were there, and have now been removed.

Oil filter would take out any small bits in the system.