I can easily get my hands on discarded magnets for DC motors such as the ones used on windowlifts or winshield wiper motors, they fit very well over an oil filter, what do you think of putting magnets around the oil filter to catch any metal particles swiming around in there? is it overkill or useful?

Well, it won't hurt anything, and they do use a magnetic oil drain plug, so go for it. And send me one while you're at it.

Just how big of a magnet are you using??? Electrically charging the oil???? Just thinking... :screwy:

I have used magnets on my oil filters for several years,I place the magnet on the end of the filter.When you remove the filter leave the magnet in place by using a filter wrench that contacts the sides of the filter,drain the filter and saw off the end with the magnet still attached and you will see all that was CAUGHT by the magnet...

There's a company that sells filter magnets:

http://www.sigmaautomotive.com/filtermag/filtermag.php

Write-up on the magnets (I didn't read the article, just google'd for oil filter magnets) :

http://www.chevyhiperformance.com/techarticles/148_0207_mag/

That´s xactly what I was thinking of using, it´s the same magnet but without the flashy advertising and since it only costs me about 40 cents, we use them to make the wiper motors.