My fiance has a '18 Buick Encore with 25k miles on it that she bought brand new. She has had it regularly serviced at the dealership she bought the vehicle from per the OLM. It has the 1.4T Ecotec. I noticed her OLM was down to 25% when I drove her car the other day, so I offered to change the oil for her.
I headed to Autozone early this morning to pickup the supplies. These Ecotecs use a cartridge style filter. Autozone lists two different oil filters, depending on what oil filter canister is installed on the engine. These engines will have either a Hengst or a UFI filter housing. Apparently, some Ecotec 1.4s have the Hengst and some have the UFI. I confirmed before I headed to Autozone that her engine has an UFI filter housing as shown on the canister cap.
The Hengst filter housings take a filter with no anti-drainback valve as the anti-drainback valve is part of the filter housing.
The UFI filter housings take a filter with an anti-drainback valve, as there is no anti-drainback valve in the filter housing.
You can see where this is going...
When I pulled the filter from the housing I noticed the oil filter installed by the dealership who did the last oil change was the oil filter for a Hengst filter housing. This is evidenced by the lack of anti-drain back valve on the used filter. The picture of the new filter shows the correct filter for a UFI housing with an anti-drainback valve as part of the filter.
My biggest fear is that perhaps for 25k miles, the servicing dealer has been installing the WRONG oil filter on her vehicle.
How much damage could be done to the engine from having non filtered oil for 25k miles? Should I contact GM and file a complaint? How should I go about documenting this?I have kept the oil filter that I pulled.
Do I express my concerns with the dealer or GM? What would you do in this situation?
How does a servicing dealer screw this up? The Ecotec 1.4T engine is in tons of their vehicles. How many incorrect oil filters are they installing on customers vehicles?
Oil Filter Pictures
I headed to Autozone early this morning to pickup the supplies. These Ecotecs use a cartridge style filter. Autozone lists two different oil filters, depending on what oil filter canister is installed on the engine. These engines will have either a Hengst or a UFI filter housing. Apparently, some Ecotec 1.4s have the Hengst and some have the UFI. I confirmed before I headed to Autozone that her engine has an UFI filter housing as shown on the canister cap.
The Hengst filter housings take a filter with no anti-drainback valve as the anti-drainback valve is part of the filter housing.
The UFI filter housings take a filter with an anti-drainback valve, as there is no anti-drainback valve in the filter housing.
You can see where this is going...
When I pulled the filter from the housing I noticed the oil filter installed by the dealership who did the last oil change was the oil filter for a Hengst filter housing. This is evidenced by the lack of anti-drain back valve on the used filter. The picture of the new filter shows the correct filter for a UFI housing with an anti-drainback valve as part of the filter.
My biggest fear is that perhaps for 25k miles, the servicing dealer has been installing the WRONG oil filter on her vehicle.
How much damage could be done to the engine from having non filtered oil for 25k miles? Should I contact GM and file a complaint? How should I go about documenting this?I have kept the oil filter that I pulled.
Do I express my concerns with the dealer or GM? What would you do in this situation?
How does a servicing dealer screw this up? The Ecotec 1.4T engine is in tons of their vehicles. How many incorrect oil filters are they installing on customers vehicles?
Oil Filter Pictures