Fragments Found? Identify Help

[scouttster]

I found these on the exterior lip of the oil pump. I'm thinking the bearings maybe came from a previous timing belt tensioner that crapped out.. These were outside of the engine, not in the oil pan. Small steel things, I don't know? Take a gander and a guess.. Thanks

[Petros]

Those look like ball bearing fragments, and I would guess they are from a blown tensioner pulley. I can not think of anything else that has ball bearings up front. Water pump perhaps, but that is outside the belt cover. Either way I suspect you are correct, they were from a previous failure and who ever replaced the part did not clean all the old fragments out.

If it was from a recent failure of a current part, I would think you would know about it. Not likely you can have a part like that fail and the engine does not need it to run. If everything is in good working order (especially everything with ball bearings) I would not worry about it, put it back together with your new parts and forget about it.

On older cars I have found all kinds of debris, old parts and even lost tools in all kinds of nooks and crannies both in the engine compartment and elsewhere. This is pretty common actually, especially in hard to reach places.

[scouttster]

yes, current tensioner is in fine working order. Must be left over fragments.... What about the steel shards? Maybe they were picked up on the road..

[sdoan]

The shards look like part of the bearing cage to me. Some ball bearings have steel cages that surround each ball holding them all equi-distant apart.

[scouttster]

Well, there I have it.. Bearing cage sounds right on.. Thanks