Mystery metal on rear diff magnet - 2008 Prerunner

I know there are a few threads on here regarding pieces of metal found on rear diff magnets, but I haven't seen these types of metal in any of those threads.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/large-piece-of-metal-on-rear-diff-drain-plug-magnet.727997/
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/metal-shavings-in-rear-diff-plug-normal.358983/
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/rear-diff-metal-on-plug.795883/

Just wondering if anybody can ID them / provide guidance on how much I should be concerned...

Background: I have likely had a bad rear axle seal for years that I didn't notice until recently. It's a 2008 Pre-Runner with the LSD

Today I drained 2.5 quarts of rear diff fluid (the other 0.5 quarts likely disappeared out the seal a long time ago). When I pulled the plug I found metallic paste and these two mystery metal fragments on the magnet. I'm going to pull the axle and replace the seal tomorrow, then refill the diff with 3 quarts of 80w90 with the LSD additive, but I'm wondering if I should open up the rear diff and inspect it first?

 

There isn’t a pan to drop.
I’d fill it up and drive it.
If it drives normal with no noises, I wouldn’t worry about it.

 

Pictures of said pan please.

Oh wait, there isn't one.

Has the fluid ever been changed?

You could look around with a borescope, but my guess is you don't have a problem.

 

The metal paste I’d call normal.

The metal piece on the left kinda looks like a piece of cotter pin, I don’t know. The one on the right, I don’t know. But I once shot out a booger that looked just like it. Come to think of it I’ve shot boogers that looked like both.

My guess, fragments left behind during original assembly.

 

Yea the oil was changed once at the dealership in 2015 (at 60000 miles), they never mentioned any metal fragments. It's now at 110,000 miles... slightly late for an oil change, but whatever

 

Clean it, fill it, drive it.

 

The first time I drained and filled mine I had a larger drill bit chip on the magnet.

 

There can be some things left over in there from the manufacturing process, mine had had a pretty good sized drilling chip that came out when I dumped the original oil at 50k and never seemed to have caused any problem.

 

Yea I've seen lots of those large drill "chips" in posts, but these are different. Pretty shocking from a QC perspective to find stuff like that in a gear system

 

I agree with the 'left over machining bits' opinion. Fill it and drive it.

 

Even though they are in there after it's second drain?

Ok... consensus rules

 

IMO there shouldn't be metal fragments on the magnet, and it's hard to understand why there is except they are manufactured and then never washed afterwards. It seems to be a common theme that a fair number of folks have reported in here. It is what it is I guess, and I don't think there is any real excuse for it unless the truck has lived a very tough life: the important thing though is that they have ended up on the magnets. I didn't have a pieces on the diff magnets when I did mine. I did have some of the black deposits on them, and the xfer case fluid was pretty clean. Nothing worth noting on the plug that caught my eye, but I'm not sure if it's magnetic? The truck had a previous owner so it leads me to believe that they were all serviced at some point in the past. (The plugs also showed some signs of previous R&R on their corners as well: except for the front diff.)