How Much Dirt is in Your Oil Filter?

[TC]

Your "astoundingly useless trivia" for the day...

How much dirt is an oil filter designed to hold? And in a unit of measurement that's easy to grasp and picture.

For this I'll go with Bosch, which is typical. "The Bosch Premium oil filter has the capacity to hold up to 14 grams of dirt in the filter media."

Cool, so 14 grams. But still not really helpful. What does that look like? So I found the data (dry loose soil weighs 76 lbs per cubic foot) and crunched da numbers.

The answer, in more relatable terms, is 2 teaspoons. A typical oil filter can hold 2 teaspoons of dirt before officially spent. Perhaps less than I anticipated...or not. Gotta go stare at a cooking teaspoon for a few seconds and mull it over...

Larger and/or better filters can hold more (the Mobil M1-208 holds up to 28 grams, equaling almost 5 teaspoons), but they're the exception rather than the rule.

From a practical standpoint this is likely all trivial, in that even petite filters, if indicated for your ride by a mainstream catalog, will not clog unless in severe service or excessive mileage. Even lil' pup filters can be packed with square inches of pleated media.

This concludes your astoundingly useless trivia for Thursday. Word out.

 

[97prizm]

Cool that ypu converted it to teaspoons. I wouldn't assume with the micron size that unless you were ingesting mining truck amounts of dirt without a filter you're likely ok. How many teaspoons can an air filter hold?

 

[50yr Street Mech]

Whatever 3 months or 3k amount of dirt. I don't open filters, just change them.

 

[TC]

Whatever 3 months or 3k amount of dirt. I don't open filters, just change them.

The 1962 Chrysler Imperial workshop manual called for 4,000 mile oil filter changes. Just sayin'...

And since 90% of everything that makes it past a car's air filter does so in the first 10% of the filter's life, changing them frequently is actually HARMFUL.

 

[TC]

Cool that ypu converted it to teaspoons. I wouldn't assume with the micron size that unless you were ingesting mining truck amounts of dirt without a filter you're likely ok. How many teaspoons can an air filter hold?

Thanks. "How many teaspoons can an air filter hold?" Good question! Depends on how many India pale ales it's had.

Finding that info for air filters is much harder than oil filters. A study found on this board suggests that name brand air filters for circa 2000 Nissan cars and pickups have a dirt capacity of 50g to 70g, or 8 to 12 teaspoons now that I'm doing this cooking school thingy.

K&N claims their #RC-9580 5" X 4" universal cone air filter can hold 30 g or 5 teaspoons.

Another test cited in this forum claims that name brand air filters for Duramax diesel trucks can hold 196g to 573g, or 33 to 96 teaspoons of dirt. Results differ for nutmeg or cinnamon, especially around Thanksgiving.

Since the Nissan car/pickup reference is most relevant for most folks, I'll BROADLY say that automotive air filters have a capacity of 8 to 12 teaspoons of the stuff your dog likes to roll in immediately after you bathe him.

As for "name brand" (Mann, Purolator, Fram, Hastings, Denso, etc.), those tests also showed dismal numbers for unbranded or sketchy lesser names, so avoid those.

 

[ZeeOSix]

From a practical standpoint this is likely all trivial, in that even petite filters, if indicated for your ride by a mainstream catalog, will not clog unless in severe service or excessive mileage.

Or running an engine cleaner, or running an oil like Valvoline Restore and Protect in a pretty dirty engine. Change filers accordingly.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Here's what Purolator had on the box when the PureONE had the grippy yellow paint job.

 

[TC]

8 nails!
31 paper clips!

That's actually pretty cool, and I vaguely recall that. It really puts things into a relatable context.

"This Bosch filter holds 14 grams of dog poo" isn't really meaningful to anyone. How many people can relate to what 14 grams looks like or means? Only chemists who use small analytical scales every day, that's who. But anyone who's ever baked a cupcake or made pancakes can relate to a teaspoon, hence my silly exercise.

 

[TC]

Printed on that vintage Purolator box: "What gets in your oil? Dirt, metal shavings and bug parts."

Since my peanut butter can have bug parts in it, why is my car's motor oil so darn primadonna special that it can't have bugs as well?

"The FDA limits insect filth to an average of 30 or more fragments per 100 grams of peanut butter, and rodent filth to an average of one or more rodent hairs per 100 grams of peanut butter." YUM! Perhaps we should install a PureOne filter on all our peanut butter jars...

 

[ZeeOSix]

Only bug parts if the air filter is missing or torn, lol.

 

[cptbarkey]

T
K&N claims their #RC-9580 5" X 4" universal cone air filter can hold 30 g or 5 teaspoons.

It could probably hold that much but since k&n filters are rock catchers it never will accumulate that much.

 

[50yr Street Mech]

Go figure, a partially dirty air filter will trap more dirt. Wonder if that applies to cabin air filters as well. My 06' Camry had the original air filter and cabin air filter when I bought it on a private sale. Ran fine. But, WOW ! Were they clogged !! 120k. You could barely see the pleats on the filters. Have no idea how that engine was running without a check engine light. And for the Cabin air filter swap, the difference in the volume of air coming out the vents was unbelievable. This guy did nothing but oil changes ( thank goodness for that ) Runs like a top. Changed a leaky valve cover gasket, and no sludge buildup.

 

[kschachn]

How much has been in my oil filters? Hardly anything, even on my old 1MZ-FE. Nothing visible at all on the Tiguan.

 

[gfh77665]

Filters hold WAY more than most think. Way more.

 

[Zee09]

Easy if you're into supplements
Find yourself some 1 gram capsules.

 

[kschachn]

Filters hold WAY more than most think. Way more.

And think that for the large majority of people that capacity is not used anywhere near the limit.

 

[TC]

Or running an engine cleaner, or running an oil like Valvoline Restore and Protect in a pretty dirty engine. Change filers accordingly.

I concur with the cleaning regimens, including the Valvoline Restore and Protect. Out of curiosity I looked at the Valvoline Restore and Protect literature and jug labeling, and it doesn't mention oil filter concerns. I wonder if that's an oversight (not very likely when there's chemical engineers involved) or if they judged that it's not a likely concern, including for product liability? Come to think of it, have cleaning regimen oil filter tear-downs on this board revealed occasionally horrendous glop in the filters? I've never actually looked.

EDIT: I just looked. Most post-flush pics looked quite normal. These were worse...

Bad but not terrible:
"Premium Guard PG111 - HPL Engine Flush Oil Results"

Halloween level frightening:
"Sludged Mileguard MO3506 After Engine Flush *pics*"

 

[ZeeOSix]

I concur with the cleaning regimens, including the Valvoline Restore and Protect. Out of curiosity I looked at the Valvoline Restore and Protect literature and jug labeling, and it doesn't mention oil filter concerns. I wonder if that's an oversight (not very likely when there's chemical engineers involved) or if they judged that it's not a likely concern, including for product liability? Come to think of it, have cleaning regimen oil filter tear-downs on this board revealed occasionally horrendous glop in the filters? I've never actually looked.

Some filter C&Ps from people running Valvoline Restore and Protect in some pretty dirty engines have shown some pretty loaded up oil filters. Were they close to the max holding capacity? ... hard to say just by looking at the debris in the filter. They would probably have to be extremely loaded to get the bypass valve to open with normal driving and hot oil. Cold starts and the oil warm-up transition run-time could be causing more filter bypassing. I think Valvoline figures if people do the recommended oil and filter change then the filter won't be very close to being totally maxed out, even though some look pretty loaded up. People with extremely dirty engines here will change the filter early on the first run of VRP to see how it looks, just to be safe.

 

[TC]

I see, thanks for the background on that. From manufacturers' standpoint there appears to be a dividing line between short-term "flushes" and long-term "cleaning."

STP Synthetic Engine Flush, Valvoline Engine Oil System Cleaner, and Liqui Moly Engine Flush are all "15 minute" flushes and each explicitly calls for an oil and filter change afterwards.

But Rislone Engine Treatment, which doubles as a mineral oil/solvent cleaner, does not. Their website explains:

"Do I have to flush my oil after using Rislone Engine Treatment?
No, Rislone Engine Treatment is formulated to be left safely in the crankcase for the life of the oil change for maximum performance. It is not an engine flush and does not require draining."

So manufacturers generally DO expect oil filters to load up during a short flush, but DON'T expect them to load up during a long cleaning (including for Valvoline R&P). Perhaps the difference is a flush dislodging chunks versus a cleaning dissolving chunks. But I agree, better to change the filter early in either case, in part due to the "loaded up VRP filters" on this forum you mentioned.

 

[gfh77665]

And think that for the large majority of people that capacity is not used anywhere near the limit.

That's why I am a die hard 2X interval guy for oil filters.