Motomaster/Champ Pentastar oil filter

[BrianF]

Gents, I read through plenty of Pentastar oil filter threads on this site, regardless, I am wondering what the brain trust thinks of this filter? This will be the second canister filter I have dealt with (used a fram of some sort on an Ecotec around 2012...) and am not up with whats good. My options are decent, Mopar from the dealer, likely Chinese made Napas, Motomaster as above or whatever I believe is a PG made Castrol. Aside from this, it is the same filter I will need for my Grand Cherokee.

Next month I will be visiting my aging parents and do an oil change on their 2021 Grand Caravan 3.6. Last year it was still south of 30,000km and in beautiful running shape. I will find a nice flavor of 0w20 for it.

Thanks guys for reading through another 3.6 filter thread.

 

[bullwinkle]

Do you have Wal-Mart there? Their Super Tech cartridge filters are the best I've seen for the 2.2 Ecotech Vue in my sig, and under $3 too! We put Service Pro EX ones in our Pentastar GC ('12), somehow the original filter/oil cooler has lasted 200K miles and almost 15 years!

 

[melk]

My 2012 Pentastar is old enough to have 5w30 on the cap I personally don’t overthink filters too much, the canister style especially. Easy enough to pop it out of the box at the store and give it the old hairy eyeball before purchase.

 

[Patman]

Do you have Wal-Mart there? Their Super Tech cartridge filters are the best I've seen for the 2.2 Ecotech Vue in my sig, and under $3 too! We put Service Pro EX ones in our Pentastar GC ('12), somehow the original filter/oil cooler has lasted 200K miles and almost 15 years!

Walmarts in Canada don’t sell Supertech oil filters

 

[ZeeOSix]

I'm assuming you mean a cartridge filter? The term "canister filter" in the oil filter world can also be used to describe a spin-on filter.

 

[BrianF]

Thanks gents, yeah no dice on Super Tech here, that and our Walmarts have abysmal selection. @ZeeOSix I continually get my terminology mixed around and offer no promise it will ever be corrected!

 

[ZeeOSix]

Thanks gents, yeah no dice on Super Tech here, that and our Walmarts have abysmal selection. @ZeeOSix I continually get my terminology mixed around and offer no promise it will ever be corrected!

I think of it as a spin-on comes in its own can ... so a canister.

Does Walmart have any Mobil 1 for that engine? What other stores are available around there. Amazon an option?

 

[Patman]

I think of it as a spin-on comes in its own can ... so a canister.

Does Walmart have any Mobil 1 for that engine? What other stores are available around there. Amazon an option?

Up here , depending on the province we have Carquest and NAPA and everywhere has Canadian Tire and PartSource. Mobil 1 filters can be found there but also Pro Series OE+ which is a Premium Guard filter

 

[BrianF]

Amazon is actually not as affordable up here as some say, i have yet to see any real deal, especially with oils/fluids.

We have Napa, Cambodian Tire, a smaller Walmart and the dealer. My local ag store store, where I normally get my oils, has very limited auto filters.

 

[BrianF]

I can easily get Mobil oils at Cambodian Tire. When on sale, the price isn't abhorrent but its certainly not commensurate, if thats the proper way of saying it.

 

[CR94]

I'm assuming you mean a cartridge filter? The term "canister filter" in the oil filter world can also be used to describe a spin-on filter.

Yes. That ambiguous term should be avoided. Back when spin-on filters were novel, they were canisters.

 

[DCDG]

My 2012 Pentastar is old enough to have 5w30 on the cap I personally don’t overthink filters too much, the canister style especially. Easy enough to pop it out of the box at the store and give it the old hairy eyeball before purchase.

Did you change out the plastic oil cooler for the aluminum DORMAN cooler?

 

[melk]

Did you change out the plastic oil cooler for the aluminum DORMAN cooler?

I have not. Letting that ride until it becomes a problem, which it doesn’t appear to be at this time. Engine is right at 175k. I’ll have the upper intake off next weekend changing spark plugs and PCV so I’ll give it a look over but I wasn’t really planning to pull the lower intake.

 

[TnT_M]

Gents, I read through plenty of Pentastar oil filter threads on this site, regardless, I am wondering what the brain trust thinks of this filter? This will be the second canister filter I have dealt with (used a fram of some sort on an Ecotec around 2012...) and am not up with whats good. My options are decent, Mopar from the dealer, likely Chinese made Napas, Motomaster as above or whatever I believe is a PG made Castrol. Aside from this, it is the same filter I will need for my Grand Cherokee.

Next month I will be visiting my aging parents and do an oil change on their 2021 Grand Caravan 3.6. Last year it was still south of 30,000km and in beautiful running shape. I will find a nice flavor of 0w20 for it.

Thanks guys for reading through another 3.6 filter thread.

FWIW, I would stick with Mopar from Walmart or RockAuto and bump to some flavor of 0w30 or 5w30 in your Pentastar's. I have had the best results for now waviness using Mopar filters in our T&C.

 

[TnT_M]

I have not. Letting that ride until it becomes a problem, which it doesn’t appear to be at this time. Engine is right at 175k. I’ll have the upper intake off next weekend changing spark plugs and PCV so I’ll give it a look over but I wasn’t really planning to pull the lower intake.

You are most of the way there so before then I would take a light and look down in there. The valley between the heads and ends of the block holds a decent amount of oil before it hits the ground... Worth the look to understand if it needs done. I did the one on our 2014 with the Doorman aluminum version. No issues since.

 

[DCDG]

I have not. Letting that ride until it becomes a problem, which it doesn’t appear to be at this time. Engine is right at 175k. I’ll have the upper intake off next weekend changing spark plugs and PCV so I’ll give it a look over but I wasn’t really planning to pull the lower intake.

My brother in-law has a 2014 Avenger with the Pentastar I don't know what his mileage is at but he doesn't maintain his vehicle on the regular and has zero issues.

 

[postbeauty]

I’ve tried several oil filters for the Pentastar 3.6, including Mopar, Fram Ultra Guard and Tough Guard, and Wix.


So far, the best filter I’ve found is the Champ P1009XL (purchased from RockAuto). Its pleats are very uniform, with none of the waviness I’ve seen in other filters.


I did notice some tearing at the base of the pleats in the Fram Tough Guard. I’m not sure whether this was due to a quality issue or if the damage occurred during installation or removal.


Another difference I observed is in the center tube design. The center tubes in the Champ and SuperTech filters can rotate freely, whereas the one in the Wix filter is fixed (I don’t recall whether the Fram design is fixed or not). My initial thought is that a freely rotating center tube might help reduce pleat deformation and possibly prevent tearing.

 

[Thumbs]

Ive stayed with Mopar for the oil filter.

 

[RP_Can]

Gents, I read through plenty of Pentastar oil filter threads on this site, regardless, I am wondering what the brain trust thinks of this filter? This will be the second canister filter I have dealt with (used a fram of some sort on an Ecotec around 2012...) and am not up with whats good. My options are decent, Mopar from the dealer, likely Chinese made Napas, Motomaster as above or whatever I believe is a PG made Castrol. Aside from this, it is the same filter I will need for my Grand Cherokee.

Next month I will be visiting my aging parents and do an oil change on their 2021 Grand Caravan 3.6. Last year it was still south of 30,000km and in beautiful running shape. I will find a nice flavor of 0w20 for it.

Thanks guys for reading through another 3.6 filter thread.

If it is the later style filter in the pentastar. (Cathedral looking plastic on the end lf it) you can get the Mopar Genuine ones from Canadian Tire. Champ no longer exists so as they sell through existing stock you might have a hard time finding them, although they also work fine.

 

[4wd]

used Mopar, Fram, EcoG, and Mobil 1 … only one that didn’t do the wavy thing was Mobil 1