used filter?

[kool_zx3]

Well there is plenty of people who can go over 7500Miles on GM cars with the GM oil life monitor, with today's engines, Oil and filters I see no problem with it. My cousin just bought a new Ford ranger and the dealer said see you in 10,000 km's, since ford recommend;s 10000 clicks here in canada. Oil and filters for some vehicles is relatively cheap but your not going to hurt running an engine till 7500 miles these days. The old 3500M/5000K's is old and foolish now.

Even my fathers does around 8,000-10,000 kilometer changes in his 2004 taurus, engine has about 140,000 kilometers on it now with no signs of slowing down. He usually runs a 6 dollar filter from wherever usually a mopar one from a local garage that stocks ones he buys bulk from a dodge dealer, and he runs 5w30 valvoline conventional like I do in my Pontiac G6.

My oil life monitor is driven all highway I could probably go past the 7500 mile mark but I do alot of stop and go city driving which then have too change around 5000-5500 miles(8000-9000)kilometers

Myself and my father will probably start using maxlife pretty soon, he has about 90,000 miles and i have 63,000 on my car.

 

[labman]

The cut open filters posted here daily seldom show much built up on them. Often the media is quite black. That could be due to being filled with wear particles almost too small to be seen. While good data on how new filters filter may or may not be available, there is hardly anything on used filters. Gary Allen did do some work suggesting even a used filter seldom has much back pressure or goes into the dreaded bypass.

Perhaps the thing to do is remove some filters at your normal OCI, cut them open and look at the media under magnification and decide if it still has open pores.

 

[rclint]

Originally Posted By: kcfx4
i like the response rclint, seems youve more than done your homework on this. how does one know how far its safe to "push" the oil? honetly im sure ill always change the filter even if its a cheap one


It's very simple for me to know how far to push the oil as I use my owners manual to set my maintenance schedule of 7500 mile OCI with a filter change every other oil change. People can deem it foolish to not change a cheap filter while changing the oil, or to "push" a cheap conventional oil to 7500 miles... but my point is none of this is foolish as the manufacture of the engine researched ( I'm sure large amounts of time, and money) then set the maintenance schedule accordingly.

Like I said in the past I also change the filter at every oil change, and also ran the sever service OCI, however I have come to terms with myself that living in Georgia I see very little severe cold weather, and I also drive mostly highway miles... so in reality I'm probably still duping oil with plenty of life left in it, however the filter needs to be change at every other OCI at least in my opinion... Then again there are documented results that a oil filter does very little to adding any engine life after the first few changes.

I will plop down the money one day for a UOA just to see where I'm at using the manufacture maintenance schedule, however if it shows I have plenty of oil life left I would still stick to this schedule as conditions do change, and I don't want to be at the end of the oil/filter failure threshold. In my situation it would be valuable to do two UOA's being I run the filter for two OCI's as well.

 

[Mr Nice]

20% old oil remaining and reusing the oil filter won't do any harm

 

[kcfx4]

may not do any harm, but regardless the %, your not changing all the oil, tho i realize we never change it all completely but i know im not purposely leaving some in

 

[ekpolk]

Originally Posted By: rclint
Originally Posted By: kcfx4
i like the response rclint, seems youve more than done your homework on this. how does one know how far its safe to "push" the oil? honetly im sure ill always change the filter even if its a cheap one


It's very simple for me to know how far to push the oil as I use my owners manual to set my maintenance schedule of 7500 mile OCI with a filter change every other oil change. People can deem it foolish to not change a cheap filter while changing the oil, or to "push" a cheap conventional oil to 7500 miles... but my point is none of this is foolish as the manufacture of the engine researched ( I'm sure large amounts of time, and money) then set the maintenance schedule accordingly.

Like I said in the past I also change the filter at every oil change, and also ran the sever service OCI, however I have come to terms with myself that living in Georgia I see very little severe cold weather, and I also drive mostly highway miles... so in reality I'm probably still duping oil with plenty of life left in it, however the filter needs to be change at every other OCI at least in my opinion... Then again there are documented results that a oil filter does very little to adding any engine life after the first few changes.

I will plop down the money one day for a UOA just to see where I'm at using the manufacture maintenance schedule, however if it shows I have plenty of oil life left I would still stick to this schedule as conditions do change, and I don't want to be at the end of the oil/filter failure threshold. In my situation it would be valuable to do two UOA's being I run the filter for two OCI's as well.


1) It's not a matter of changing the filter "even if" it's a "cheap" one -- I'd be more inclined to change the cheap one, vs an expensive one.

2) Yes, you probably are dumping oil with plenty of life left. In normal conditions, your filter will be in even better condition than your oil. The need to change it is less pressing than the need to change the oil. Cut a few of them open. Run a UOA or two, with particle counts.

3) Again, when you decide to pay for the UOA, do so with a lab that provides REAL particle counts (not statistical extrapolations). I have concluded that unless you're driving in truly horribly dirty conditions, or your engine is shedding large amount of particulate debris, your filter won't be anywhere near "used up" when the normal time to change oil rolls around.

All this said, given the price of most filters, I'll change too at every oil change. OTOH, if it's time to change, and I'm out of filters, or I can't find the proper one, I would lose zero sleep over not changing. In short, this is a very "low stress" issue.

 

[labman]

Where are you getting this quart or 20% dirty oil? My truck holds 6 quarts of oil and its filter is a fairly large 3 1/2'' x 3'' one, but only holds about a half quart. A common PF 47 would much less.

 

[kcfx4]

once again i made it up!! for simple math!! regardless the %, you still would be purposely leaving used oil in

 

[mechtech2]

Most oil filters on street cars don't hold anywhere near a full qt.

But is it OK to leave a used one in?
Sure!
This used to be the standard treatment - change the filter every other OCI.
Now, it is coming back in favor from mfrs..
If it is OK to leave a filter in with synthetic oil for 10- 12,000 miles or more, why can't we do so with 2 changes of dino?
I started doing this myself, because the more I thought about it, the more I was convinced is is OK with modern cars.

 

[kcfx4]

once again i made up the 1qt filter. my comfort level wouldnt let me dream of changing oil every 10-12k regardless of what the company said

 

[HTSS_TR]

Originally Posted By: mechtech2
If it is OK to leave a filter in with synthetic oil for 10- 12,000 miles or more, why can't we do so with 2 changes of dino?


I did just that with '94 LS400 for more than 10 years now. I'd done that with '04 S2000 the last 2-3 years too.

So far the '00 E430 had filter changed with every oil change, but it uses synthetic and OCI is 1 year at about 10-13k miles. Every time I looked at the E430 cartridge filter (it's paper, not fleece) I thought about re-use it because it looked so clean. But I didn't re-use it for reason that one year and up to 13k miles is more than enough for what I paid.

 

[Audi Junkie]

Yep, cheap dino = 2 runs of the filter, expensive synth = one run.

 

[kool_zx3]

Originally Posted By: kcfx4
once again i made up the 1qt filter. my comfort level wouldnt let me dream of changing oil every 10-12k regardless of what the company said


and the dealer, walmart, autozone etc... will be glad to take your money....

 

[kcfx4]

and i will gladly give money for a new filter everytime, versus possible more expensive problems or cutting a time off the life of my car, truck, boat, mower...etc

 

[Vizzy]

I'd change the filter. If you change your oil every 9 months or so. For about 3 bucks on average it seems awfully cheap not to do this.

 

[Audi Junkie]

Originally Posted By: kcfx4
and i will gladly give money for a new filter everytime, versus possible more expensive problems or cutting a time off the life of my car, truck, boat, mower...etc


Have you cut any used filters open?

 

[kcfx4]

actually i have a mazda 6, that doesnt have a spin on, but a cartride type, i see it every time, and every time it goes in the trash

 

[Audi Junkie]

Mine look clean.

 

[kcfx4]

so you reuse?

 

[kool_zx3]

I am not worried, I seen under valve covers of GM cars following oil life monitors taking them over 7000-8500 miles that have over 120,000 miles and more using regular dino oil and cheap filters and the heads look like new. No varnish, sludge.... Nothing. I ain't worried about my engine by going over 5000 miles on an oil and filter change.... It will probably last just aslong as your engines changing the oil and filter at your low OCI's...

Today's oil and filters have come along way, changing them at 3500 miles or the 5000 kilometers they use to suggest is a waste of time but do what you want....