Any advice...?

[Ollie Swanson]

So I took my SYM Wolf 125 EFI in for a service today as it hadn't had one since before I purchased it in September. However there was a ton of swarf found in the sump and oil strainer as seen in the picture. The guy who serviced it said its a borderline write off but I thought i'd come here just in case anyone had any other views. Cheers

[Ian Frog]

How old was it and who did you buy it from?

I tend to agree with your mechanic and hope you had some kind of warranty.

On the upside if you own a boat you should have a spare anchor sometime soon.

Cheers

Ian

[Bender]

Is it or was it rattling before you took it in or after the service ? 

[Ollie Swanson]

There was no rattling at all, would sometimes have issues starting up but it passed on the second or third attempt

[Ollie Swanson]

The bike itself is from 2013 and I bought if off a reputable garage

[fastbob]

Is the swarf magnetic or non magnetic ? Whatever it is I really wouldn't worry about it . Just stick some Wilko 20 50 Mineral Oil for " Older vehicles " in it and carry on . Do you think the guy in India carrying his family , two dogs and a cage full of chickens is worried by a bit of swarf ? 

Edited October 29, 2021 by fastbob

[husoi]

A reputable garage is no warranty that the bike was in good condition.

Also, nothing guarantees you that the mechanic wasn't trying to stitch you up telling you porkies.

 

Unless you saw the oil coming out the engine to a clean bowl I would take his word as good as me telling you that I'm next in throne for the UK. 

[Bianco2564]

New engines can have a surprising amount of machining swarf inside, depending on how good they are cleaned before assembly.

The swarf gets trapped inside castings and eventually gets flushed out with vibration and fluids moving around. 

Machine swarf is normally curls of aluminium quite different to flecks of metal you appear to have.

 

If the engine sounds and runs ok, if it were mine I'd refill with oil and run for another 100 miles then drain the oil again and see if returns. If it does you know something is failing and will need investigating further.

Or scrapping....

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

I agree. You've obviously had it refilled with fresh oil anyway so just run that for a short while then drop the oil again and see what comes out. If it's a 2013 bike then it's presumably not a new engine, unless it had been replaced before you bought it. That looks like aluminium particles rather than steel. Possibly something has come adrift and then been broken up, but since aluminium is pretty soft it may not have done terminal damage. I've found a few bits of broken castings inside engines over the years, they never seem to have caused a huge problem. Sometimes you never find where they went to.

[Fish]

Surely an engine would have more than that volume of oil in it?

[Bender]

 No noise,   as above run it, if you want do another oil change in a couple of weeks see what that's like.