Changing filter without changing oil

[rangerdood]

I have about 2000 miles on my current oil fill. I bought a Motorcraft filter today to replace my Bosch one after reading that a FL-1a could quiet down my engine a bit at startup. Can I change the filter without draining the pan and doing a full change? I have Syntec in right now and don't to loose my $40 oil change just yet. I have one quart to use for make-up, and I can always buy another loose quart if need be.

My understanding is that the only oil that will be lost is that in any of the passages from the filter on up, plus that which is in the filter, of course.

 

[slipperysam]

Dood,
Go right ahead and change that filter if you feel you must.
Just top up your oil according to the reading on the stick after you've run the engine again. It wont hurt anything to warm it up once minus a quart. This is one time you want the engine oil cold as you will probably lose less oil because it would have drained back as far as possible in the engine for less oil loss.I've done this before with no problems. You probably will need a quart or less to top up, For some reason I can't recall We always ran MC filters on any Ford's we ever owned.
Of course now we drive Honda. LOL

SS

2000 Honda Accord 3.0 V6
2004 Honda Pilot 3.5 V6

 

[Dyoel182]

Originally Posted By: rangerdood
I have about 2000 miles on my current oil fill. I bought a Motorcraft filter today to replace my Bosch one after reading that a FL-1a could quiet down my engine a bit at startup.


They both have an anti-drain back valve so I dont see how it could make a difference.

 

[Triple_Se7en]

The Motorcraft FL-1A has a nitrile ADBV. I'm not sure what Bosch filter you used, but I do know the Wix 51516 and the NAPA Gold 1516 both have the silicone ADBV - which may reduce startup noise for you.

 

[Shipo]

Our 1998 DGC with the 3.8 liter engine generates a fair amout of lifter clatter following a cold start. After hearing all of the complaints that many folks have had suggesting that my use of Mobil 1 was what caused the noise, I tried GC 0w30 and got the same noise. As Mobil 1 is easier to come by I went back to the Mobil 1, which I have been using in one grade or another since the early 1980s.

One day my local Autozone didn't have the Bosch filter that I've been using and so I bought a Motorcraft FL-1A instead. Funny thing, it didn't actually register through my thick skull that my engine had quieted down until the next oil change when I went back to the Bosch. Hmmm, I went out and bought another FL-1A and changed the filter only a couple of hundred miles miles after the oil change. The engine quieted right back down.

I now use only the FL-1A in both of our 3.8 liter DGCs, even though our 2003 (which has a perfectly vertical filter mount) doesn't appear to need it.

 

[Dyoel182]

Very odd.

 

[Shipo]

I don't know how odd it is, clearly there is something different in the Motorcraft filter, and my guess that something is the ADV. The filter mounts are different on our two 3.8 liter vans, the older one has the filter mounted at about a sixty degree angle while the new one has the filter mounted vertically. The old one makes lots of valve train noise following a cold start (unless I use the FL-1A), and the new one doesn't. Coincidence? I have no hard proof but I'm thinking not.

 

[Gary Allan]

We can also imagine that all nitrile ADBV are not created equal. For all we know the incidents of valve failure are effected more by other aspects of the filter in how they allow the ADBV to distort or whatever. Obviously, YMMV

 

[Shipo]

You might very well have a point there.

I will say this, the instant I use either a Bosch 3500 (FL-1A size), a Bosch 3402 (the OEM filter size), or even one of the aftermarket Mopar filters, that engine generates lots of valve train noise following a cold start. The FL-1A manages to generate quiet starts for the full 10,000 to 12,000 miles that I go between oil and filter changes.

Thinking about this further, I think I remember reading somewhere that Bosch filters are no longer being made by the same company that has been making them for quite some time. I discovered the FL-1A benefit for that engine over a year ago and haven't used a Bosch since. Could it be that the new version of the Bosch filters would work better?

 

[Dyoel182]

Originally Posted By: Shipo

Thinking about this further, I think I remember reading somewhere that Bosch filters are no longer being made by the same company that has been making them for quite some time.


Right. Champion Labs no longer makes the Bosch filter which was a great filter almost identical to the more expensive Mobil 1 filter that people love.

 

[rangerdood]

I currently have the Bosch 3500 on my truck. I'm really just doing it for an expirament. I don't like valve noise! Next oil change I'm going back to conventional, anyway. The synthetic just isn't worth it for my short OCIs.

 

[Shipo]

I got into this thread as a means of saying that I made the same move as you're contemplating, and have had stellar results. With the Motorcraft FL-1A in place, my engine makes absolutely zero valve-train clatter following a cold start. I predict that your truck will benefit as well.

Question, why the short OCIs with synthetic oil?

 

[rangerdood]

With the amount of short trips my truck makes, I'm worried about fuel dilution and condensation. My truck actually gets up to operating temperature maybe once a week in the winter. I'd like to keep my OCIs short (3k), so conventional will do fine for me, and save me some money.

 

[Shipo]

You might want to consider going say 7,000 miles with synthetic oil and then sending a sample in for analysis. One of the things you'll then know for sure is the level of fuel dilution (which I suspect will be lower than you think), and then you won't have to worry about it any longer.