Fill oil filter during a change or not

[speeder]

The crazy thing is, every Ferrari V-12 I’ve ever seen from the ‘60s or ‘70s had two big Fram filters sticking up from the top. I always figured that they must be different from the crap Frams that are sold in FLAPS.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

Buy a bunch when you see the good ones, and check them all.

The WIX filter says Gastonia, NC. My father lives there and one day I just drove by their decent sized HQ before I knew they were there. Not where they made the filters but it's a small world. I use WIX on the 911.

On topic, I fill the filter if I can.

On the other hand, I left a VVT solenoid unbolted in the head of a 4cyl Cruze as I was waiting for the replaceent. I absent mindedly started the car and within a couple seconds three quarts were on the ground. Oil pumping is robust.

[greglepore]

Fram had issues with the filter media blowing out in the 90's and early aughts. Supposedly its fixed now, at least with their premium filter lines (they have numerous grades). Told to me by a reliable relative that manages a fleet of diesel trucks of all sizes and construction equipment.

[Rot 911]

I can’t say that I have ever had an oil filter, blow out or go bad in any way, shape or form no matter what manufacturer. And this includes every cheap one I ever bought as a kid all the way up to today. All I have ever done is unscrew the old one and screw the new one on. Now that I can afford to, I just go to the dealer and buy the oil filter from them. I still get my oil from Costco.

[stevej37]

For at least the last 30 years, I have only used Mahle filters in the 911's.

In all the other brand cars that I've owned....only used Fram.....never one problem.
And I'll continue using them.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by Rot 911

I can’t say that I have ever had an oil filter, blow out or go bad in any way, shape or form no matter what manufacturer. And this includes every cheap one I ever bought as a kid all the way up to today. All I have ever done is unscrew the old one and screw the new one on. Now that I can afford to, I just go to the dealer and buy the oil filter from them. I still get my oil from Costco.

Pretty unlikely for the media in a filter to disintegrate as long as they are changed in time. I once bought an older Mercedes-Benz with a “blown engine” not far from where I am sitting now. The car was absolutely mint under a blanket of dust and I got it for a song.

The lady I bought it from said that she was sitting at a red light when it went, “squeak-squeak-boom” and seized up. She had it towed home and got a new car. When I tore it down, sure enough, the cam and rockers were all dry and welded in place. I pulled off the head and to my surprise, the pistons and cylinders looked fine and the engine now turned fine by hand, (once the cam chain was no longer connected).

I tore down the bottom end to inspect and replace bearings, at this point all I needed was a cam and associated hardware. It was still a mystery what had happened until I opened the oil filter canister, (cartridge type), and found the filter looked like a toilet paper roll, (empty one), with small shreds of paper media left on it. Like a beaver had chewed off all of the filter media like corn on the cob. Sure enough, the small passages up to the top of the engine were plugged up with the wadded-up paper from the filter media.

To make a long story long, a good used cam and bearings plus a valve job later, it ran like new. What happened is that she always took it to a quick change type place for oil changes and they did not have the correct filter for it, so she told them to just change the oil and not the filter. Someone must have told her that this would be fine but who knows? It probably started out as a perfectly good Mann or Mahle filter but it eventually turned to mulch.

Why anyone would compromise on oil filter quality to save a couple of bucks is beyond me. Even if you are in the sticks, you can order several of them online and throw them in the trunk so that the teenager at Jiffy Spooge can change it.

[porsche tech]

We had a 993 TT customer with an excessive smoking issue and went round and round trying to figure it out. (Oil wasn’t overfilled). Finally I called the PCNA help desk and it just so happened that a German district service manager (can’t recall his name now) was manning the phone. He had a dealer in Florida that had the same problem. Turned out to be the factory oil filter. Changed and problem solved. Weird one with easy solution (just luckily talked to the right guy).

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by Rot 911

I can’t say that I have ever had an oil filter, blow out or go bad in any way, shape or form no matter what manufacturer. And this includes every cheap one I ever bought as a kid all the way up to today. All I have ever done is unscrew the old one and screw the new one on. Now that I can afford to, I just go to the dealer and buy the oil filter from them. I still get my oil from Costco.

I have. It was back in the mid 70s. I changed the oil on my 1974 914 2.0 and filled it with oil. I backed it out and started forward and heard a funny pop. My oil pressure light came on and I shut off the engine. I got out and there was all my oil on the road.

The foreign parts store I used had sold me a cheaper filter. I was too young to understand that cheap often equals low quality. I struggled and managed to put the 914 back. I got my old filter from the trash, filled it with oil and went back to the parts store with that blown filter in hand. The rubber sealing ring just blew out one side. I was rather upset. They gave me a new good filter, and another four quarts of oil. I went back and drained the oil, and replaced the filter with new, and refilled again. It was almost like owning a 911 using that much oil.

After that I worked at using a Wix filter for oil changes.

[rfuerst911sc]

Around 2009 GM made major changes to their supply chain . AC Delco was part of that change as they switched to having Champion make AC Delco spin on oil filters . Cartridge filters under the AC Delco name are made by Hengst . In both scenarios they are supposedly made to GM/AC Delco specifications . It's unfortunate that as consumers in many cases you have to peel back the onion to find out what you are really buying .

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by speeder

...filter looked like a toilet paper roll......

Mighta' been, back in the day!
(You were in luck if you were driving a Humber Super Snipe! - but curiously, Mercedes isn't listed, even though Porsche is!!)

[rfuerst911sc]

^^^ My dad bought one of those for our 1964 Plymouth Fury with a 318 . Yeah he was quite frugal

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by rfuerst911sc

^^^ My dad bought one of those for our 1964 Plymouth Fury with a 318 . Yeah he was quite frugal

Gawd, I remember those. How'd it work out for your dad?

[rfuerst911sc]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

Gawd, I remember those. How'd it work out for your dad?

I honestly don't remember much about it other than it seemed to work .

[GH85Carrera]

To get back to the original post, it takes me only seconds more to fill the oil filter as get ready to put it back on. I prefer that few seconds of initial start up to have oil pressure, and not rely on just the film of oil in the engine. If it was some arduous, I might skip it. As it is so easy, I fill em up on the El Camino. Of course not on the 911 with a horizontal mounted filter and lots of oil in the oil tank.

For my wife's Macan, no prefill as it is on top, and empty when I take the top off to replace the cartridge.

[Arizona_928]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

Mighta' been, back in the day!
(You were in luck if you were driving a Humber Super Snipe! - but curiously, Mercedes isn't listed, even though Porsche is!!)

I would use Charmin because it doesn't leave anything behind

[GH85Carrera]

[911 Rod]

If you fill the filter should you fill it with a lighter oil so it flows one millionth of a second faster?

[speeder]

As I explained earlier, it's completely irrelevant to getting oil to your bearings. It might make your oil pressure gauge register sooner by a second or so because they are usually run off of a sensor next to the filter...the end of the line for oil migration, not the beginning. The bearings are the beginning.

Don't believe me? Look at a schematic of any oiling system. Shawn posted one for a 911 a few posts back.

[Deschodt]

I wasn't aware that was a quasi religious debate - what is it with oil and car guys ? ;-)
Denis above makes sense. It also makes sense to prefill when possible under the "why not" clause, when not messy (like say most BMW engines), otherwise I'd be more concerned about actually changing the oil often (tranny too), the filter each time, looking inside it if possible, and adding a nice magnetic drain plug. I also send my oil to blackstone each oil change for my older cars (and do only 2000mi on dino oil and 5000 on synthetics). That's probably nuts too but my dino oil cars are old, I have several 200K mi+ engines that are not disproving my madness.

[sc_rufctr]