This is a couple years old but I figured I'd post it anyways. Long story short is the GF took her car to a car wash establishment in that does oil changes also. Very impressive, large, clean looking facilities. I was told that they use High Performance Lubricants for their oil change lube. After close to a couple thousand miles she tells me it's making a weird noise every now and then and it will be down on power. I guess the oil light would flicker sometimes while this was happening too. I listen to it and it sounds like the cam chain is slapping around to me. I pull an oil sample and also pull the filter. The filter housing is supposed to have a support tube that the filter slides over and this was missing allowing the filter to partially collapse. I'm guessing maybe it was going into bypass and that wasn't allowing the cam chain tensioner to work properly. I got a new Toyota housing, filter and some TGMO oil and it appeared to take care of the problem. She didn't drive it for about 3 weeks while we were waiting on the oil sample results hoping to minimize any internal damage if there was any. Nothing in the oil report showed anything abnormal and 2 years later everything is still good. So the 2000 mile oci on this report is without the support tube and then the 8000 mile sample is with the TGMO 0w20. It has around 130k on it now so I'll try to pull sample at the next oil change. I have a picture of the filter that I'll try to post also.
2016 Toyota Camry 2.5L 104,131 on unit 7,976 oci TGMO 0w20
- Thread starter ditchdiggin
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U are telling us that the garage monkeys some how destroyed or removed the filter housing’s center tube that allows clean oil to return back into the engine. It just so happens I have close-ups of the internals from my Toyota Venza V6. In a normal situation, the Toyota OEM oil filter does not collapse and as a matter of fact very difficult to compress or tear apart.
U are very very lucky there is no engine damage.
Attached is my uoa for reference indicating no damage.
I kind of doubt that was if HPL oil. The voa molybdenum is usually greater than 500ppm or the boron is greater than 600ppm but degrades as it being used.
U are very very lucky there is no engine damage.
Attached is my uoa for reference indicating no damage.
I kind of doubt that was if HPL oil. The voa molybdenum is usually greater than 500ppm or the boron is greater than 600ppm but degrades as it being used.
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The question is which garage monkey actually did it. She has always went to a quick change place for oil changes and there's really no way to prove when it actually was removed. It is kind of odd that she normally goes about 10k between oil changes and this didn't make 2k before the issue made itself known. I had never been under the car before this happened(thankfully) and didn't know what the inside was supposed to look like until I went to the Toyota garage and asked to look at a new one. No idea what kind of filter they use but would guess it's not oem. Definitely dodged a bullet!
When u removed the cartridge housing where was the center tube? Attached or unattached to the filter housing?
The center tube was missing.
Not good. The center tube is pinched in and provides internal support to prevent the oil filter from collapsing. At the bottom there is an internal spring that sets the pressure for by-passing. I have three Toyota vehicle products and six filter housing available for quick spin on oil changes. I never have never have seen anything thing like this before.
Also the unethical garage monkeys should have said something when they 1st encountered this situation. I am not even an ASE certified technician and I even know this is a problem.
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The oil filter will indeed collapse when the oil gets hot. The filter will be very flexible when hot. That's why the center tube prevents collapsing.
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Makes me think Toyota wasn’t off with their 10k oci recommendation. Of course the car care nut will still deny this evidence
