Mitsubishi MZ690116 w/ pics!

[ace33chrisEVO]

Hello, I have been reading this great forum for a while, but I guess this is my first new topic.

As some of Mitsubishi owners might know already, Mitsubishi followed Honda & Toyota, and reduced their number of oil filters to 2 (as far as I know). Skinny and long one, and Fat and short one. (MZ690116)

The oil filter for my 2003 Lancer Evolution was MD356000 made by Toyo-Roki, and I believe it is still the one comes with the car from the factory. I used this filter for about 1 year, then Mitsubishi introduced this MZ690116 made by Denso. Because I usually buy 3 or 4 filters online, I have been using this "Made in Japan" Denso MZ690116 for another a year or so. As I saw at 3000GT club forum, the filter media was some kind of felt type, and it looked good.

Then Mitsubishi introduced "Made in Thailand" Denso MZ690116. Although, I believe the origin of products does not always determine the quality, but I do not believe Mitsubishi brought more expensive oil filter at the same price while they are not doing good in US. Therefore, I used my can-opener and hacked one new oil filter.

As you can see from the pictures, this thing does not have end-caps.

It does have by-pass valve (at the bottom pic), and anti-drain-back valve (the blue rubber one).

I tried Wix 57092 as its online catalogue suggests, but it was taller than this, and it interfered with plastic wheel housing cover/guard(?) and the top portion was sticking out. I am not sure it was stone flown from the wheel housing or ground, but filter had a deep scratch after some use. (Filter mounts vertically near oil pan)

So I bought Wix 51365 which is about the same height as Mitsubishi one, but narrower. Because Mobil 1 and K&N recommends M1-108 and HP-1008, which can be cross-referenced to 51365, I hope it won't cause any problem.

It would be great if Wix offers anything compatible with same height as 51365 but a little bit thicker in diameter, but my email to Wix hasn't been answered yet.

Any comments, suggestions are welcome. Thanks for reading!

 

[kanling]

This is the same construction as the latest Toyota oil filters (not coincidentally also made at the Denso factory in Thailand). The Toyota ADBVs are not blue, though. Interesting color.

 

[Winston]

Very interesting. As a Mitsu owner, I always wondered what was inside their filters. Looks like nice filter media.

1. No end caps? Strange. Are the ends of the pleats glued together? Are the pleats hard to separate?
2. Have you measured the filter area? One easy way would be to measure the height and depth of each pleat and count the pleats.
3. How is that bypas valve constructed? I cant tell from the pics.

 

[kanling]

Here's the Toyota I took apart for comparison:
http://theoildrop.server101.com/cgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=6;t=002995

Shows bypass setup a little better. Assuming this one is the same, it is a fluted plastic plunger with a coil spring.

The pleat tips are glued together. Somebody else took apart a used one and found the glue held up well, tearing the media before the glue would give up.

 

[Winston]

I am talking off the cuff, because the only thing that matters is the actually flow and filter testing. However, I do not like how they glue the ends of the pleats. It squishes the pleats together so, there is very little room for the oil to flow between the pleats after it passes through the media. It seems like you would get a lot of flow through the base of filter pleat and not much through the face of the filter pleat. Does that make sense?

 

[kanling]

Yeah, Winston, I noted that concern in the one I looked at. The pleats are kind of flattened due to them being glued at both ends.

At least for the Toyota sized filters, though, this Denso design had more pleat area than most competitors. Maybe that helps.

I guess it works well enough, or they wouldn't be doing it this way.

 

[ace33chrisEVO]

Thank you kanling for the link. It seems Toyota filters have exactly the same design as this Mitsubishi filter. I guess they will work well enough too, because Toyota and Mitsubishi wouldn't use them if they are not working. But I think there are better filters with little extra money, so I would like to try them.

 

[mitsuorder]

It would be nice to have the old MD356000 offered here in the States... I've been using the newer OEM ones for a while now. Has anyone actually found a quality/safe aftermarket alternative filter?