When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I can’t believe I’m even having to type this but here I am and it is what it is I suppose. A couple weeks ago I picked up this super clean 2012 grand sport low mileage bone stock. After taking a look underneath the car I realized the dealership put a cheap oil filter on it when they changed the oil and I didn’t feel good about that so I did an oil change… the drained oil had about 300 miles on it and at first glance seemed fine but I did notice it had a light film on top so I shined a light on it and the oil looked sparkly. I let it sit in the drain pan for a couple of days and then dumped it out and sure enough in the bottom of the pan was a significant amount of glitter. It’s silver in color and none of it is magnetic so I’m assuming it’s aluminum.This is blowing my mind because on my last C6 it was the exact same thing with about the same amount of glitter. I’m going to put about 1000 miles on it and then send out a sample to Blackstone labs for an oil analysis.
I reached out to the dealership and unfortunately where the car was preowned it was sold as is with a 30 day warranty but the warranty only covers mechanical failure and at this point the car is running fine. The motor sounds completely normal and oil pressure is really good. My question is what do you guys make of this and what would you do if it were your car? I’m just extremely puzzled because of the fact my last LS3 C6 was the exact same way. So are LS3 cars just glitter factories or am I seriously THAT unlucky?? If I send out the sample to Blackstone and the report comes back completely normal do I just drive the car and not worry about it? I forgot to mention I did cut the filter open and inspected and aside from a few tiny shiny specs the filter was very clean. Those of you who do your own oil changes have you ever let the oil sit for a day or two after draining just to see what settles at the bottom of the pan, if so do you see anything like this? I’m at a loss guys and pretty upset over this any help would be appreciated. Thank you
Last edited by bwill03z; Nov 20, 2025 at 11:22 AM.
Did something happen to your previous C6 to make you want to sell it ? Congrats and Post pics of the new ride
Nah nothing happened… when it was stock I had metal glitter in the oil just like this one has…I had just wanted a grand sport for a long time and found a really clean low mileage one… I really hope I didn’t make a huge
mistake tho :/
but thank you!
Yeah, dont worry yet.. Run it 500 miles and send off your oil sample.
I just put new heads on mine, they came full of machining swarf, I scrubbed them out quite a bit and got a load out, but the first drain had more in it. What you see may be left over from some engine work etc. Ask the dealer for a service record to check.
I also did an oil test when I first got the car and it was clean.
Yeah, dont worry yet.. Run it 500 miles and send off your oil sample.
I just put new heads on mine, they came full of machining swarf, I scrubbed them out quite a bit and got a load out, but the first drain had more in it. What you see may be left over from some engine work etc. Ask the dealer for a service record to check.
I also did an oil test when I first got the car and it was clean.
That’s why I’m so confused because the car is bone stock and has never had any type of engine work done. I did ask for a service record and the only thing they did was change out the mass airflow sensor and prior to that there are no surface records indicating any type of engine work.
I know the previous owner let the car do a lot of sitting in a garage over the course of about five years, maybe it’s possible he did a lot of cold starts just to keep fluids flowing and this is the result of excessive cold starts?
also let’s say I put about 1000 miles on it and send in an oil sample and it comes back completely normal, should I continue driving it and just not worry about it even if the oil looks like this every time I change it? With that much glitter something has to be wearing away at an accelerated rate and surely it’s just a matter of time before it shows itself
That oil you drained only had 300 miles on it. I assume that even if it’s a low mileage engine it’s still well past its break in period. That’s a lot of glitter for 300 miles on a broken in engine IMO.
That oil you drained only had 300 miles on it. I assume that even if it’s a low mileage engine it’s still well past its break in period. That’s a lot of glitter for 300 miles on a broken in engine IMO.
exactly, that’s why I’m so concerned. The car just clicked over 32,000 miles which is well past any kind of new motor break-in. And this oil only had 300 easy miles…. Unless someone test drove the car and ran the ***** off of it.
assuming the car had proper oil change intervals from when it was new there should not be any kind of debris in the oil. I suppose it’s possible that somebody went way too long without an oil change but I have no way of knowing that
Nah nothing happened… when it was stock I had metal glitter in the oil just like this one has…I had just wanted a grand sport for a long time and found a really clean low mileage one… I really hope I didn’t make a huge
mistake tho :/
but thank you!
Gorgeous !!! Can't wait to see what cam you go with
o my again, just my .02 cent i never had glitter liker that in oil. the only time is wen the engine was damaged. If it was me i would run it but anticipate a full rebuilt at some future time. I mine what r u going to do, Tear it down. Just drive it and deal with what happens. Maybe nothing will happen, but now your back to not sleeping again. What a conundrum. Blackstone is not going to help you. If its a bad repost then what?? if its not then what???? see where im getting at.
I cringed when i saw your post. Maybe something is telling you to leave the corvette platform. God sorry to hear about it, you been through hell and back with your issues. Man i feel for you dude.
o my again, just my .02 cent i never had glitter liker that in oil. the only time is wen the engine was damaged. If it was me i would run it but anticipate a full rebuilt at some future time. I mine what r u going to do, Tear it down. Just drive it and deal with what happens. Maybe nothing will happen, but now your back to not sleeping again. What a conundrum. Blackstone is not going to help you. If its a bad repost then what?? if its not then what???? see where im getting at.
I cringed when i saw your post. Maybe something is telling you to leave the corvette platform. God sorry to hear about it, you been through hell and back with your issues. Man i feel for you dude.
Thank you man I appreciate the sympathy and I agree even if the Blackstone report came back fine then obviously it’s just missing the problem. I spoke to the dealership and I’m taking the car back Monday to have service check it out. They are going to drain the oil and inspect and use a borescope to check some things. Possibly drop the oil pan and check the bearings. Bro I have to be the most unlucky person ever with cars. If the car was paid for and I had owned it for awhile i would just drive it and plan for a rebuild in the future but I just bought this thing. Gonna be many nights of little to no sleep until I figure this out.
Thank you man I appreciate the sympathy and I agree even if the Blackstone report came back fine then obviously it’s just missing the problem. I spoke to the dealership and I’m taking the car back Monday to have service check it out. They are going to drain the oil and inspect and use a borescope to check some things. Possibly drop the oil pan and check the bearings. Bro I have to be the most unlucky person ever with cars. If the car was paid for and I had owned it for awhile i would just drive it and plan for a rebuild in the future but I just bought this thing. Gonna be many nights of little to no sleep until I figure this out.
Hey guys just wanna follow up on this post. I took the car back to the dealership today and they drained the oil. The oil had exactly 175 miles on it and there was a ton of metallic glitter in it. Enough to where the service manager said yea this motor is on its way out… they were shocked. So basically I am going to put some more miles on the car then go back for another drain, at which point a claim will be submitted. Thank God for a warranty. They said depending on what GM says, I’ll either be getting a new motor or my motor will be torn down and rebuilt as long as no machining needs to be done. Here’s a pic of what they saw with 175 miles of super easy driving.
Hey guys just wanna follow up on this post. I took the car back to the dealership today and they drained the oil. The oil had exactly 175 miles on it and there was a ton of metallic glitter in it. Enough to where the service manager said yea this motor is on its way out… they were shocked. So basically I am going to put some more miles on the car then go back for another drain, at which point a claim will be submitted. Thank God for a warranty. They said depending on what GM says, I’ll either be getting a new motor or my motor will be torn down and rebuilt as long as no machining needs to be done. Here’s a pic of what they saw with 175 miles of super easy driving.
Glad its going to be taken care of. That's the good thing. The bad thing is you do have bad luck with these engines.
Glad it’sgoing to be taken care of. That's the good thing. The bad thing is you do have bad luck with these engines.
Man I tell ya I love corvettes but this is my third one and all 3 have had engine problems. I don’t know if my luck really is that bad or these motors are just that sensitive. My guess is that there are plenty of LS motors out there that are glitter factories but still run strong and go for many miles. I think most owners don’t do their own oil changes and the ones that do just drain it then dump it and move it and don’t really pay too much attention to it. I might be overly sensitive to it but the service manager agreed with me that the motor def has issues. I’m not gonna feel good about it until a new motor is being installed or my motor is completely torn down but they said one of the two would be happening. 🤞
Hey guys just wanna follow up on this post. I took the car back to the dealership today and they drained the oil. The oil had exactly 175 miles on it and there was a ton of metallic glitter in it. Enough to where the service manager said yea this motor is on its way out… they were shocked. So basically I am going to put some more miles on the car then go back for another drain, at which point a claim will be submitted. Thank God for a warranty. They said depending on what GM says, I’ll either be getting a new motor or my motor will be torn down and rebuilt as long as no machining needs to be done. Here’s a pic of what they saw with 175 miles of super easy driving.
How could a professional oil analysis, say Blackstone for example, not detect this amount of metal in your oil sample, that seems illogical/impossible, however i know thing about the process of oil analysis i'm just using common intuition seeing that much metal/glitter in the oil
I was thinking of checking my oil like this at my next oil change, but i'm not certain if really want to look...
Curious what oil and filter do you currently use in this engine ?
Designer Imagines A Corvette That Looks More Like a Corvette Than the Corvette
Slideshow: A Jaguar designer's personal project imagines what a modern front-engined Corvette might look like if Chevrolet revisited the golden age of the Stingray.
Not again…… Help
