Using cheaper filters at shorter intervals

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izz

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Recently i purchased a 12 year old vehicle with about 80k miles, the maintenance on it seems to be neglected due to not being driven a whole lot.

I’m putting on about 300 miles a day (work) and so I put in m1 syn (0w40) with their filter but was thinking perhaps go with cheaper filter and just change it every 2000 miles or so instead of 7-10k Miles.

Logic is obviously the car isn’t used in some crazy high performance environment so maybe i can sacrifice some filteration rate but if I’m catching things that were built up in the engine the high end would clog up quicker anyway so using cheap filter method to clean things out for a while might be better.

I was considering the same with actual oil by going conventional but changing filter is easy doing the whole drain far bigger hassle and mess.
 
Cheaper filters don't always mean worse quality so I like your idea. M1, K&N, AMSoil etc are going to be expensive and not always any better than the big names like Wix or Fram's middle to upper tier filters.

Personally, I'd go for a standard wix and do 3-4k mile filter changes. M1 0W40 is definitely an oil proven to easily go 10k miles so doing a couple or three filter changes will help filtration for sure (if engine is internally sludged up) and the top up oil you'd need for the filter change will also replenish the oil's TBN so you'd maybe go more than 10k miles doing that.
 
The only 'cheap-cheap' filters I can think of are off shore no name filters I don't wanna touch.

Better to get national brand oil filters on sale, stock up a bit and go for the usual oil change
interval.

If you feel the engine as-is now is really dirty, add an engine oil flush (1 cup of kerosene), idle the engine
for 20 minutes (don't drive it) then dump the oil and replace the filter. Typically a lot of junk will come
out in the oil into the oil change pan. Much better then short OCIs.
 
300 miles a day is a fair amount of highway I'd assume. The oil will get up to some high temps without a doubt and I'd probably avoid kerosene flushes considering it only has 80k miles on it.

What was the longest it had gone without an oil change in the service history? Does it burn any oil? If it's not burning oil and it didn't go 20k miles without an oil change, it's probably fine.
 
Oh for sure i meant $4 ones vs the $10 one i use now.

How safe is the method you’re describing? The motor runs just fine as it is now so i don’t want to break things trying to fix it. I also read somewhere that using diesel oil at short OCIs is good way to clean things up.
 
Originally Posted By: KL31
300 miles a day is a fair amount of highway I'd assume. The oil will get up to some high temps without a doubt and I'd probably avoid kerosene flushes considering it only has 80k miles on it.

What was the longest it had gone without an oil change in the service history? Does it burn any oil? If it's not burning oil and it didn't go 20k miles without an oil change, it's probably fine.


There’s no documented service history but it doesn’t burn any oil either. I will have to replace oil pan (cheap fix on this car) i noticed it had started to rust (however no leak) but that should do wonders in cleaning things out.
 
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For many years I have used MC filters at 10K OCIs. Never a problem. One new filter every OC.
 
Originally Posted By: tig1
For many years I have used MC filters at 10K OCIs. Never a problem. One new filter every OC.
yeah i typically do the same on a new car or a well maintained one im just trying to get this one back on track or so to say.
 
Run it for twenty days 6000 miles then do a UOA see what it tells you. If everything looks good run the next one at 25 days or adjust accordingly. By the way what kind of car and which engine?

I wouldn't use just any cheap filter a Tough Guard is only $6.64 at Walmart and it almost filters as effectively as an Ultra! But its rated at 10K miles.
 
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I just purchased 6 Fram Ultra for my Elantra for $27.49 o Ebay or $4.58 each. Those would go 10,000 miles and not much difference in price than your $4.00 filter. I used to buy oversized filters for my Saturn (3614 OEM and 3600 over sized) for more filtering capacity. If that is an option you may want to try that. I used the extended size Mobil 1 filter in an RX300 when I started running synthetic oil to clean the engine prone to sludging.

300 miles a day. I do not drive that much a week.
grin.gif
I think I would want less filter changes due to the amount of miles you drive.
 
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I use and have used proselects. I think they are great for the money and for under 3$ in the USA, you wont sweat when tossing it after a short OCI. Truth is Id run it 3-4k miles minimum though.
 
If you're looking for an economy priced filter why not a Walmart Super Tech if it's made in your size? They're inexpensive and made by Wix. What's your year/make/model of vehicle?
 
Originally Posted By: FlyNavyP3
If you're looking for an economy priced filter why not a Walmart Super Tech if it's made in your size? They're inexpensive and made by Wix. What's your year/make/model of vehicle?



Wix ?? I read on here ST filters are now made by Champion labs ???
 
Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
I don't think it's a good idea. You're better off using an expensive filter for two OCIs.


He's worried about the filter clogging up early as stuff loosens up if it's dirty.

OP, how hard to pull a valve cover and take a look?
 
Just run Super Tech oil and filters and change at 3-4000 miles for the first couple times.
Don't use any type of flush, it just may break loose crud that can block oil pump.
Driving 300 miles a day will keep the engine clean .
 
Izz - I favor frequent oil and filter changes at least in the beginning for these reasons:
1. The oil’s add pack is consumed while cleaning.
2. The oil filter can fill to capacity quickly.
3. When you change the oil hot and with a quick drain, any large particles can be dislodged and found in the drain pan. Some of these would take a long time to be caught in the filter.

Start at 3K and stay at 3K until the oil begins to clean up. Add 1K and repeat. Switch to a better filter at 6K. Switch to synthetic oil when you need the extra life and add pack.

For 80K of dirt, 3K, 4K, 5K, 6K and so on until you reach the desired OCI/FCI is safe and you don’t have to take any risks.
 
You would need to know the specs of the low price filter. And believe them. If the only thing that made it cheap was less filter media then maybe OK. But if it filters at 50 microns vs 20 for quality filter, then I would skip it.
 
Yes, u are fine using jobber oil filters and change it every 3-4K miles (using dino or syn blend oil). That’s what i would do in ur case.
 
Originally Posted By: izz
Recently i purchased a 12 year old vehicle with about 80k miles, the maintenance on it seems to be neglected due to not being driven a whole lot.

I’m putting on about 300 miles a day (work) and so I put in m1 syn (0w40) with their filter but was thinking perhaps go with cheaper filter and just change it every 2000 miles or so instead of 7-10k Miles.

Logic is obviously the car isn’t used in some crazy high performance environment so maybe i can sacrifice some filteration rate but if I’m catching things that were built up in the engine the high end would clog up quicker anyway so using cheap filter method to clean things out for a while might be better.

I was considering the same with actual oil by going conventional but changing filter is easy doing the whole drain far bigger hassle and mess.
Buying the cheap eBay Ultras would be the way to go-they can catch more, and driving 300 miles in a day would be the way to clean an engine, with all that hot oil spraying around. I'm a fan of good old PYB in this situation, too-it'll clean it up, and you could afford to change both oil & filter every 3-5K.
 
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