Is changing oil filter every other oil change OK?

I think I would rather run the synthetic oil 7,500 - 10,000 and change the oil filter half way. Filters are cheap and easy to change.

 

My brother-in-law is a mechancial engineer and owns his own construction company with a lot of mechanical equipment. His advice to me was that if he had to choose between changing the oil or the filter he would always change the filter. This is what catches all of the unwanted particles in the oil and keeps them out of your engine.

So my opinion is always change your filter with your oil. As cheap as filters are and no longer than it takes to change why even think about taking the risk.

 

I'd never bother changing a filter midway through an oil change interval. By the time you have to get under the car and mess with used oil and clean up etc, you may as well have done the full oil change.

In the UK and Ireland the standard oil change interval is 10k miles, and they use the same OEM Toyota filters, so they must be good for that distance. I can't see anything wrong with using the filter for two oil change intervals if you're only doing 5k miles each time.

There's the slight downside that you keep about an extra 300 ml of old oil in the system, but also the slight upside that the pump stays primed and the oil will circulate faster on the first start afterwards. For longer drain intervals like 7.5k to 10k then yeah, I'd always use a new filter every time.

 

+1
I've cut open a lot of used oil filters. Unless it was crappy old engine with a lot of blow-by there is usually amazingly little stuff in a used oil filter.

Personally though, I would never reuse an oil filter. As long as I'm under the car and have tools out to change the oil, changing the filter is a piece of cake. And I run 10k miles on my Prius oil and until the oil change monitors say change it on my other cars which runs between 6k and 12k miles depending on the car and how it's been driven.

 

Yeah I know what you mean, I like to do them both together as well.

It's interesting that on a lot of older cars the service manual did often recommend only changing the filter every second oil change. Some new cars still have this recommendation, but it's not so often now days. I suspect it's something to do with the relative cost of the filter being less (manufactured goods have got relatively cheaper over the years but no so the oil). It's probably got something to do with the generally longer recommended oil change intervals too.

 

I never could understand why anyone would want to not change the filter when changing the oil. You might as well drop the oil and then dump it back in the engine. Afterall, the new fresh oil is immediately contaminated with the old dirty oil that is left in the filter when you first start up.

IMO, it defeats the purpose of the oil change altogether and will contribute to the detriment of the ICE.

Trying to save a buck by skipping a filter change is really not the thing to do. If you want to save a buck, do your own oil changes. Skipping things in maintenance of any car is like playing russian roulette. At some point the cartridge will come up to the top.

Ron

 

For comparison: Honda maintenance schedule actually alternates between oil change and oil and filter change, in other words: filter changed with every second oil change. Honda dealership service departments will however fight you, tooth-and-nail, if you ask them to abide by this.

My compromise, when doing my own changes on a previous Honda vehicle: when oil change only was called for, I removed, drained and re-installed the existing oil filter. This dealt with the cup or so of oil in the filter.

I got the idea from Harold, a member here and at CleanMPG.

FWIW, with the Toyota scheduled spec's to change the filter with every oil change, that's what I do. Bottom line, especially since I'm DIY: I comply with the schedule, back it up with receipts.

 

Alot of factors to consider here, but I can say for certain that it would be better to go 2 cycles on a oem filter than 1 cycle on a cheap aftermarket filter like orange fram filters.

Buying a manufacturer brand or premium filter will give you several times the filter media that a cheap aftermarket filter gives you.

That being said, I would definately change the filter every time for the first few oil changes. After the warranty expires, you can probably do just fine with every other quality oem filter. By the time the engine has broken in, there will be a reduction in metallic particles and maintaining the warranty will no longer be a concern.

Keep in mind that the prius filter is the same filter as for the 4 cylinder camry, an engine that is 60% larger that operates 100% of the time.

 

Not worth the risk for a $5 part, imo. Plus if you don't change the filter you are leaving some old oil in with the new. I personally go with oil and filter changes at 7-8k. Synthetic oil.

Glenn

 

Ha!

Every time this controversial topic comes up, a lot of opinions are posted, but few relevant facts.

 

^ You can remove the filter, pour out the oil, then re-install it.

One relevant fact (I know, I'm belabouring it): Honda is on record: they recommend (via the in-dash Maintenance Minder) a regimen that alternates oil-and-filter change with oil-only change.

 

Sure you can remove the filter, pour out the oil and re-install it. But why bother over a $5 part? If I am going to take it out, I'm going to go ahead and replace it. The oil costs more than the filter. You can also take out the air and cabin filters and shake them out and use them again but the same rule applies, I just replace them when needed.

I'm not saying that I am right or that my way is the best way but I don't understand the logic in not replacing the filter. If it works for you and you are happy with it, great!

Please don't bring up Honda again. This is not a Honda.

Glenn

 

One less oil filter in a land fill? N'mind.

 

There are threads here about high oil consumption. Why not be conservative and change it right?

 

If you did an oil analysis on your oil every 1,000 miles until you reached the thresholds for contaminants etc, that should cause you to change the oil, you would generally end up changing the oil sometime after 15,000 miles (3x+ longer than recommended). So why is the oil change interval recommended at 5,000 instead of 15,000? My perspective is that the early oil change (and filter) interval provides redundancy protection against many other failures, and protection in case the engine is exposed to harsh/unusual conditions.

Let's say you're already right at the edge of where the oil filter really needs to be changed and your air filter leaks. You then have additional contaminants coming into the oil, but your oil filter is basically already full, and so it quickly clogs and you won't have enough oil pressure. Or if there's unexpected wear that leaves metal bits in the oil, or nasty sludgy bits of incompletely burnt gasoline and oil get into the oil. If the filter is mostly clean, you have some additional protection against these events. If the filter is mostly full, you have less protection.

My general thought is to not deviate from the scheduled maintenance or what is recommended unless there's good data to support a reason not to follow what's recommended. The engineers who thought about the scheduled maintenance likely did so using lots of historical data on similar cars, and what they found during testing. There's good data on why to change the tranaxle fluid, which is why I change that, even though it's not part of scheduled maintenance. However there's not good data for reusing filters.

If you want to extend oil filter and/or oil change intervals, I'd recommend having an oil analysis done for your oil right before a scheduled change. If the data comes back good, you can extend your intervals.

 

I lol'ed a little because if this was posted over at Bitog you'd be burned at the stake.

Use the OEM filter. Go to the dealer and buy 3 there $4.00 each. No Fram no Wix.

As Kevin said there's no data. It would require 2 oil samples. One with 10K on it and the other with 20K on it and not having the oil filter changed.

For most of us here it's unthinkable though. It's very cheap protection. I spend a little more for high performance oil and the difference is significant both in drive ability and it stopped my minor oil loss. That to some is crazy as most people take the Prius to the dealer for an oil change as they have donuts and wait hours to pay for vat oil and get overfilled. Because you have to have Prius serviced at the dealer because its a space ship.

 

I have read data that suggests the filter actually is doing a better job at 5k than new because partially plugged filter media will filter better which makes sense. Maybe this is why Honda is recommending every other oil change? I buy Carquest filters at Advanced Auto for pretty cheap and change mine out every time because 225k miles on my car.

 

That's a good point. I read in the manual that oil consumption is normal in this engine. After my first oil change at a dealer (just to see what else they would do or say in addition to the oil and filter), I realized the dealer had overfilled the oil by nearly a quart. Once the 5k mark had been reached, the oil had burned itself down to exactly the low level mark without going under. I also observed even before that oil change that these engines do consume some oil, as indicated by the factory manual as normal even when new.

I read somewhere that this is a low interference engine, which I suppose could suggest there is less friction and there may be less particles to filter. From the standpoint of it being a 1.5 liter engine, that would definitely seem to consume less filter media than a larger displacement engine.

On the other hand, the constant on/off cycle of the prius ICE could warrant the need for additional filtration, however it doesn't seem to be the case according to the maintenance schedule which appears quite typical.

 

Don't run the oil down to the low mark. Very bad for this engine.

And I don't know what "Low interference" is. Never heard that term before.

And show me your data that says a clogged filter filter's better.