Pulled auto transmission pan, 100s-1000s of little steel beads

Insideoriginal
Mon, 25 Apr 2022 21:21:12 +0000
Maintenance/Repairs

02 outback with 160k miles. Pulled transmission pan to do filters. Removed magnet to clean it and found 100s to a couple thousand tiny beads about 1/64 or .3mm. The are all very uniform and magnetic, so I’m guessing steel.

Transmission doesn’t seem to have any issues, maybe just a very slight hesitation when shifting, but not enough to worry about.

Anyone ever see anything like this in a transmission?

*Please don’t respond with “looks like you need a new transmission”. I know lots of people on here own and work on Subarus, I’m wondering if anyone here has seen this EXACT issue before.

Update: got the correct answer here, for anyone who is interested: https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/ubz8z4/pulled_the_pan_on_my_transmission_to_clean_the/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

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