Hello jessealan, to a fellow G1 Legend member, great cars right?
I also have a 89 Legend with 160,000 miles.
If the Walmart you have been taking your car to hasn't discovered that your filters are more expensive, then it's their problem. The Walmart here in Canada charges more than the standard price. So you're lucky. Midas wants additional $5.
On the other hand, Purolator DOES make an oil filter that fits the Legend. I have one on right now.
I used to buy oil filters for the Legend from Crappy Tire that were imported from Japan under the Motomaster Label. These were beauties, long, well contructed and used a moulded O-Ring for the seal. I stocked up on them once when I got 20% off. When I went back for more a couple years later, all I could get was a smaller Fram filter like Walmart uses.
Went to the Acura dealer and the parts guy shows me a Legend filter that is the same size like the fram. Says that is what the Legend filter is. Sorry don't want that.
It's cold (-20C) so I get a change at Midas Muffler and they spin on a Purolator. It's bigger than the Fram - actually I think it looks to be the same size as the imported one.
Did some checking. The imported Motomaster filter that I used to use was actually made for the NSX. More surprisingly, it is only $4 canadian ($2-$3 US) more at the dealer compared to the Fram at Walmart. I figure that the NSX redlines way higher than the Legend, so that filter better not burst, nor produce too much pressure drop. No wonder they used an O-ring. Also for the few numbers of NSXes around, I don't think Fram would even think of actually making an NSX specific filter. They have to be imported from Japan.
My point? check out that NSX filter. Another thing - I never had any lifter noises when I used those NSX filters on startup. Now when The engine is cold - I get a little bit at first.
I'm thinking of going to the Castrol Syntec 0w-30 in conjunction with the NSX filter and going for a double interval over dino.
Switched to Honda ATFZ1 yet?
