Oil Filter Change W/O Oil change

C

Crossguy

Joined
May 1, 2025
Messages
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I'm wondering, in order to save a few bucks and be able to use the filter of my choosing, if it's okay to change the filter myself, right after an oil-only change done by a garage. This is a contingency plan in case the garage (an auto store chain store) refuses to use a filter I provide, given that the store sells the same filter at a higher price.

Also, what is the exact procedure for a filter-only change? I'm guessing:

1) wear gloves, put drain pan in place
2) loosen filter, let drain, then completely remove, finish draining, make sure gasket came off
3) clean area around filter
4) pre-fill new filter, light film of oil on gasket
5) screw in new filter, hand tighten (not Hulk hand tighten)
6) clean area again
7) start car, check for leaks
8) check oil level, top off as necessary with same weight oil
 
Lubener said:
If you are going through the effort to change the filter, why not do the whole job yourself and save more. Your reasoning makes no sense to me.
Click to expand...
Doing the who thing myself is still on the table, but there is a little sense to my plan. Mainly, let the garage to the hardest part (by experts), including disposal of the old oil. This actually saves me time and money in my situation.
 
I feel like changing the filter is the most annoying part of the oil change. I agree with the other poster - just do the whole thing yourself. By the time you drive to the shop and wait for them to do the oil change and then go home and change the filter and then bring the used filter to recycle you could have just done the whole thing yourself.
 
OP-

Yes; what you propose can be done. So there's that.

I'm not really clear on how this saves you "time and money". Or how changing the oil is the "hardest part" ...
- where is the time savings, if you spend time at a local change place AND then spend your own time at home? That's MORE time spent.
- You're going to have to top-off the oil after you change the filter at home; that means you're tossing some portion of new oil away by changing the old filter after the fact. That doesn't save money.
- And I think you're going to struggle to convince us that it's the "hardest part" to change the oil vs. changing the filter; there's no distinction in difficulty between those.

It makes little to no sense to the rest of us; the majority of us would see this as "in for a penny, in for a pound". Either let the entire job be done by the shop, or do the entire job by yourself. Anything in-between is actually causing MORE money to be spent and MORE effort on your part.
 
dnewton3 said:
OP-

Yes; what you propose can be done. So there's that.

I'm not really clear on how this saves you "time and money". Or how changing the oil is the "hardest part" ...
- where is the time savings, if you spend time at a local change place AND then spend your own time at home? That's MORE time spent.
- You're going to have to top-off the oil after you change the filter at home; that means you're tossing some portion of new oil away by changing the old filter after the fact. That doesn't save money.
- And I think you're going to struggle to convince us that it's the "hardest part" to change the oil vs. changing the filter; there's no distinction in difficulty between those.

It makes little to no sense to the rest of us; the majority of us would see this as "in for a penny, in for a pound". Either let the entire job be done by the shop, or do the entire job by yourself. Anything in-between is actually causing MORE money to be spent and MORE effort on your part.
Click to expand...
"Yes; what you propose can be done. So there's that."

Thank you.
 
If that's what you are comfortable with go for it. No problem doing that.
 
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Overwhelming majority of the time, the oil filter is so much more of a PITA than draining the oil. An exception to this will be canister filters on top of the engine like on the Chrysler 3.2/3.6L Pentastar or GM 2.2 Ecotec, plus a few more I'm sure.

I'd venture to say 99.9% of the time, draining the oil is a piece of cake. I swear engineers get all done with the design and are like "oh &$&$ we need to put an oil filter on this thing. There's room over here right? *#&$ it, ship it."
 
A few of the previous threads on this somewhat popular topic. One of the threads is quite recent:

skaughtz

Thread 'Can you change oil filter without draining oil?'

Potentially stupid question here: can you swap an oil filter without draining the oil from the pan?

I have a vertically mounted spin on filter on my 2007 Camry 2.4L. I am running HPL EC through it for 3000 miles and want to see what that filter caught from the HPL EC at the next change. However, before I swap the oil, I want to run a can of BG EPR through it. I figured I would sacrifice a PH3600 for the 20 minutes or so that the BG EPR is running through it both to see what it does on its own and to be safe from overloading the existing filter that might have caught junk from the HPL EC...
  • Wow
R

Thread 'Removing oil filter without changing oil.'

Is it possible to remove your oil filter and replace it without draining your oil? I want to do this because I might have a clogged or damaged filter. Will a lot of oil come out when you remove it considering the oil is still in my car which in my case would be about 5 quarts? I have a 93 ford taurus 3.8L V6 GL 4dr. sedan.
M

Thread 'Changing only the oil filter without replacing the oil'

A few weeks ago, I replaced the oil in my 2012 Cruze with Dexos 1 Version 3 but used a non-GM oil filter
I've only driven 500 to 600 miles since then. Is it okay to replace only the oil filter with a GM filter without changing the oil? If yes, what is the risk of contamination?
P

Thread 'Oil filter change with no oil change'

Hi BITOGers,

I have been touring this forum for a while now and registered just a while ago.

Since this is my first post, I thought it would be a good idea to start with a dumb question
blush.gif
.

I read in several posts something I have a hard time to understand: Changing the oil filters during an OCI.

How do you do that? will the oil flood when you remove the oil filter?

The only way I see that is to remove the oil, change the filter, and put the used oil in the engine.

Thanks for help me know more about engine and oil, this...
E

Thread 'Change oil filter without ever changing oil'

I have a 2002 Echo with 165k suburban miles on it. For 140k or so miles, I have used synthetic oil that I have changed every 6k to 7k miles without fail. Now, I am burning 1 quart every 1500 miles.

Since I go through all of my car's oil between my 6000 mile oil changes, do you think that it is okay to change only the oil filter now without doing a complete change of the oil and filter simultaneously? I am going through a full change every 6k miles anyway by topping off with clean oil monthly.
B

Thread 'oil filter replacement without oil replacement?'

well. normally i would replace both. I could not get the oil filter off with a crescent wrench around the plastic hex on the filter housing in my 2008 VW Passat FSI Turbo. I was under the car and had already removed the old oil, when i was unable to remove the filter cap to replace the filter inside. Thus i just added new oil so my wife can drive the car the next day.

Now this weekend i am buying the 16mm filter cap socket in hopes that this will break the hold on the filter cap from its housing without destroying either. However, i really don't want to drain the new oil a second time. I...
Titan

Thread 'Early Filter change in new Engine'

Changed oil and filter on a new 2025 Lexus ES 350 F-Sport at 254 miles. I've often done early oil/filter changes on new engines, but I never cut open the filters. The 3.5L V6 Toyota filter is a replaceable cartridge type, so it was simple to view.

EVERY pleat contained easily visible particles...some only a few, some with probably over 50 particles. They were mostly silver, some copper-colored, some appeared sand-like.

I used an OEM filter and new O-rings. Filled with Mobil 1 ESP 0w-30 and will run it to 5000 miles and change it again. I'll let Lexus do the 10,000 mile oil service (I'm...
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Lubener said:
If you are going through the effort to change the filter, why not do the whole job yourself and save more. Your reasoning makes no sense to me.
Click to expand...
Plus, you're going to have to ADD some more oil that was in the filter.
Then check the level.
Then add more oil.
Then check the level.

Then clean up the spilled oil from removing the filter.

Did the garage actually 'refuse' to use your filter ?
That's where I'd start.
Tell the garage you will supply the filter (leave it on your seat).
Expect $2.00 removed from bill.
 
Crossguy said:
I'm wondering, in order to save a few bucks and be able to use the filter of my choosing, if it's okay to change the filter myself, right after an oil-only change done by a garage. This is a contingency plan in case the garage (an auto store chain store) refuses to use a filter I provide, given that the store sells the same filter at a higher price.

Also, what is the exact procedure for a filter-only change? I'm guessing:

1) wear gloves, put drain pan in place
2) loosen filter, let drain, then completely remove, finish draining, make sure gasket came off
3) clean area around filter
4) pre-fill new filter, light film of oil on gasket
5) screw in new filter, hand tighten (not Hulk hand tighten)
6) clean area again
7) start car, check for leaks
8) check oil level, top off as necessary with same weight oil
Click to expand...

It really isn't much more work to just do the entire oil change yourself. But, if you only want to swap the filter, you have the correct process.

Step #4: My filter is horizontal, so I can't really pre-fill it. If that is your situation, maybe just add a half quart of oil before starting (step 7) to account for the empty filter and some of the drainage.
 
The old MicroGreen filters were designed to do this. Supposedly you changed the oil every 30k miles and only the oil filter every 10k miles
 
I used to do filter only changes with my '02 Explorer, here's why. years ago I used to drive alot because my job location changed during the year. Doing oil changes twice a month were getting expensive. So I learned on here that there were extended life engine oils, that were rated to go 10k and 20k miles between changes. So I decided to see if that was true. So I first tried a 10k oil. My factory recommend oci was 5k. At 5k I would changed out just the oil filter. I added oil to the new filter and spun it on. At 10 k I changed the oil and filter. That helped keep expencises down. So next change I found oil that said it would go 20k between changes. So that's what I did. Changed the filter every 5k until I got very close having 20 k on the oil. I didn't notice any difference in engine performance or noise. Sure it looked dark when I changed it, but it did that also at 5k changes. Maybe the engine used a qt or so between changes. Mostly towards the end of the oci. It also sped up the process in winter when it was 10 degrees out, to just change the filter. Being the filter is what supposed to keep the oil clean, using a clean or bigger filter on a vehicle seems less wasteful then just dumping 5 qts of oil, that has been reviewed by places like Blackstone labs, to have more life left in it, at normal recommended oci's. That Explorer's engine lasted to 254,000 miles before the transmission left the building.,,
 
You got the oil filter change procedure listed in good order. It can be done. In my experience, significant or even any "savings in time and money" doing it, difficult to imagine. Got to be a better solution.

Gathering information, I once asked WM TLE/ACC checkout person if I could bring my own filter for an oil and filter change. The individual said yes, they would do a "filter delete" charge back. Worst case if you don't want to do full service diy oil&filter change, as long as not absurd bite the bullet and pay the extra charge for the oil filter of choice. Or, find a new shop that will allow you to bring your filter of choice.
 
Either find a shop that will use your filter or change the oil yourself. There is no time or money to be saved by having a shop do a full oil change, then spending the time to swap the oil filter. Also, in the first post

"This is a contingency plan in case the garage (an auto store chain store) refuses to use a filter I provide, given that the store sells the same filter at a higher price."

So if they have the same filter as what you are going to use then why would you bother changing the filter after it has already been changed? All you would be doing is wasting time and money to swap out the exact same filter.
 
A bit more detail. Name the chain. You mentioned no preferred oil?

I can see the anticipated resistance to your bringing a premium filter they sell.
Remember, oil change "come-ons" at chain garages are bait to get you in and upsell you on services.
As it is, you're doing this to avoid a "filter upsell".
Like they say in diner menus, "NO SUBSTITUTIONS". They likely don't want to talk to you at all.
However, it may go well, as in Sayjac's last paragraph.

Yes, you're not asking for much, but you are initiating something different to the work and communication patterns of people who are set in their ways and often not-too-bright.
Even with "big daddy's" permission, a filter left on the seat might be better tied it to the steering wheel so a disinterested worker sees it.
I think you could do better establishing a relationship with another garage / indie.

Finding a sharper garage would be a better pay-off for your fret and efforts than merely dodging a filter's price difference.

Who thought tailoring an oil change could involve so much sociology and psychology?

I'm in the "do it yourself while you can" camp.
Is your filter particularly difficult to remove?
Open the gushy, dirty oil system once-do the little job with time efficiency-clean up once, avoid everyone else's caprice
........and be done with it.

The biggest thing I see wrong most often are bad oil catch pans. The ones which just have a "Pyrex measuring cup" spout or no spout at all are plain wrong.
The ones with no depth are inexcusably badly designed as they splash and nobody uses them as a suitcase to transport the old oil.

Get one with a 6" long tube spout. This spout goes into an empty oil jug and pouring is splash free.
Like this: https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/oi..._term=4580221858715256&utm_content=All Others

Change your step #5 to read, "Using hands only, tighten to the spec shown on the filter or its box."
This is usually 3/4 to 1 FULL turn after contact.
It is not the vague, "hand tighten (not Hulk hand tighten)", you wrote.
Nor is it, "Tighten it until it don't go no more". This is what the stupids do-resulting in impossible removals.
 
Last edited:
The oil filter is by far the harder part of changing oil in my Camry and messiest.
 
I'm with the others, the oil change is only 25% of the work. You still have to deal with some drained oil, plus the filter swap.

Back in ancient times (the 80's and 90's) I knew a few folks who would swap filters at 1000 miles. No oil change at all. The theory was that they were filtering the old oil and replenishing the additive package with a quart of new oil every 1000 miles. One guy had a van, and decided to change the oil after many years of this practice. He removed the oil plug and nothing happened. The sludge sealed the bottom of the pan. He routed around with a screwdriver and the nastiest black mud dribbled out. Ironically, the engine quite right after.
 
@Crossguy as others have said, the oil filter is often the more difficult part of an oil change service. Do you have a friend who is experienced? You might get part way done and get stuck. And you MUST have the proper jacking tools and support tools to safely work underneath any vehicle.

If you are unsure, let the shop do the work.
 
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