Amsoil filter caused engine destruction ?

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If that is the case and he bought the filter before the TSB he has a great case against them. If he bought the filter after the TSB, the TSB should have been in the box with the filter. If not he still has a good case.

Flame suit on.....If he bought the filter through a dealer after the TSB, the dealer should have mentioned the TSB, and asked what car the filter was for. Please note I didn't say the dealer should have contacted every person he sold that filter to about the TSB, after the fact. That would have been nice, but the world is far from perfect.

My bet is a good lawyer would get this guy some money. The fact that he wanted to use Amsoil products shows the guy knew more than the average person about maintaining a car.
 
If Amsoil originally spec'd this filter for his truck, and then despec'd it, how in the world is it the owners fault???? Did Amsoil send a certified letter to each and every user of this filter in this application? Did Amsoil call each and every user of this filter in this application ? Did Amsoil at least email each and every user of this filter in this application? (I know it's hard for some to believe, but not everybody is online)..................Or, did Amsoil just put a TSB o their website, and they EXPECTED all customers using this filter in this application to check their website each and every day??

Amsoil has more then "just a share in responsibility" in this issue. Buyer beware certainly applies here.
 
That is my argument, I doubt they did much other than post the TSB on the site and include in their publication. The publication stops at the end of the PC term. If you renew PC status you get the publication, if you don't no publication.
 
Originally Posted By: c3po
Originally Posted By: badnews
c/p from another board - what happened here ?





I was running amsoil in my 07 when the motor went out. The truck had 48k miles on it at the time of the failure. The amsoil that was in it had 12k miles on it. Prior to putting amsoil in I had just been letting the Toyota dealer service it every 5k. The amsoil I was running was 25k oil, however I was going to change it the day after my engine went out, I already had new oil purchased. I was driving down the road and had just pulled back into my lane after passing someone. When I noticed the oil light come on. I quickly pulled to the side of the road and shut my truck off. I checked the oil and it showed full on the dipstick. When I tried to restart it it would barely crank. I had it towed into the dealer and when they drained the oil it was full of metal. They told me the cause of this was the amsoil filter starving my engine for oil. Amsoil had a bulletin on their website that the filter I was using (E057) was not for Toyotas. So Toyota did not warranty the engine. Amsoil also did nothing for me and acted as if they did not care. I would like to hear your opinions on this.


I am wondering if the Amsoil cleaned the engine out, what kind of oil was being used at the Dealer, was it Dino Oil.

Maybe the guy was doing some short trip driving and the engine had some junk in there. JMO


Dino oil at 5k with such low miles shouldnt dirty an engine to the point where a good synthetic will clog a filter with how much it cleans. Dino is not the dino of yesterday. Uness he had another problem that contributed to sludge.


In any case, this guy was a moron. He violated his warranty, and is complaining that they will not warranty his engine, hah.

If anything he should have requested the filter back from toyota so he could inspect it.
 
I have to agree using Amsoil before the warranty up is like flushing your money down a drain.
Stay with the scheduled oil change and use any oil as they will hold up with those short amount of time man. recommended oil changes

Then again I will never buy a Amsoil Filter either
 
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Originally Posted By: defektes
[


In any case, this guy was a moron. He violated his warranty, and is complaining that they will not warranty his engine, hah.

If anything he should have requested the filter back from toyota so he could inspect it.


If the Amsoil filter failed he has a good case, warranty from Toyota or not. His problem is with Amsoil not Toyota. The minute he put anything from Amsoil except Amsoil XL into his engine he voided the warranty with Toyota, and shifted it over to Amsoil. This is where a good lawyer comes into play.

Now if Toyota canned the filter, then he is probably SOL.
 
Edit timed out:

As with all stories we read on the WWW there are 3 sides. Until we hear the 3 sides of the story, we will never know what really happened.
 
Originally Posted By: Gary Allan
The 057 has a bypass. The whole scenario doesn't quite add up. A filter just doesn't catastrophically clog. The odd thing is, in every application that I can think of, if a filter does clog, it's transparent in operation. Toy's appear different in that regard, but ..again, if it was apparent at high speed, it would be just as a apparent with cold oil at start up.


I wonder if the filter media did fully clog, and if the bypass valve could really flow enough oil at high RPM to keep the motor from grenading? I'm thinking the filter designers don't design for this scenario ... meaning the bypass valve is sized assuming the media is still flowing a decent amount of oil,and not fully clogged up.

Could be this guys filter totally clogged, and even if the bypass was working, still wasn't enough oil to keep the engine from smoking itself.

He did say the oil light came on, so that tells me there was near zero oil pressure. Maybe the oil pump's pickup screen got clogged slowly as the engine slowly self destructed and created metal shavings, etc. A clogged pickup screen could have been what killed it in the end.

It would be interesting to see the guts of that filter.
 
I think filter bypasses flow enough oil to maintain adequate oil pressure. They are usually sizes about as large as the filter exit itself. Apparently the bypass didn't open or was clogged by something or the filter exit was blocked by broken parts of the filter. Without seeing the filter, we'll never know what caused the oil filter bypass or filter exit to be blocked.
 
Originally Posted By: mechanicx
I think filter bypasses flow enough oil to maintain adequate oil pressure. They are usually sizes about as large as the filter exit itself. Apparently the bypass didn't open or was clogged by something or the filter exit was blocked by broken parts of the filter. Without seeing the filter, we'll never know what caused the oil filter bypass or filter exit to be blocked.


If the bypass valve could flow enough oil, then something else happened to cause the oil pressure light to come on. The light coming on means the oil pressure and oil flow was essentially zero.

I'm not too sure if a bypass valve could supply enough oil to the entire engine to keep it 100% safe for ever. Let's say the filter clogged 100% and the filter was in bypass all the time. Maybe it was running that way for 4000 miles, and the engine was slowly destroying itself and causing debris to slowly clog the oil pump's inlet screen. Then one day it gets so clogged that the oil volume is cut off and the oil pressure light comes on and the engine finally toasts itself. That's the scenario I see happening. The oil pressure light coming on gives you a clue that it was total oil starvation at the end.
 
I had to pull a Bosch with filtec off my Toyota the next day after an OC early this winter with M1 AFE, as it wasnt flowing properly - I now avoid high efficiency media like the plague in the Winter - even with 0w-XX oils. I am ashamed that I used my sensory perception to make this decision though, as I have been scolded here many times that such use of one's senses in making lubrication-related decisions is all fantasy and sugar pill
wink.gif
 
Gages, calanders, millage stickers, OML, etc. are great. If you hear the rods knocking, the valves rattling, or the timing chain, time to do some checking. Engines don't die a quiet death.
 
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Right now, if you use the Amsoil lookup tool for a TOYOTA, it will list a Mann or Wix filter, not any of the Amsoil filters.
As a new-to-me toyota owner....I have been doing a lot of reading.
Amsoil, at some point backed off of extended OCI for all toyota vehicles.

What I don't see in the original post is what vehicle / Engine / year.
So we do not know if this was one of the vehicles that was covered by the oil "gelling" program from TOYOTA.
If the owner was notified by Toyota that the vehicle was covered by the "Gelling" program, going with extened oil change interval was NOT a wise thing to do.
Also, doing that while the vehicle was under waranty would clearly violate the waranty.....since it is pretty clear that this problem would not have happened had the oil and filter been changed as per the interval in the owner's manual.

I am sure that their products are great in Toyotas for the OEM specified OCI of 5K-7.5K miles.
However, Amsoil markets for a extended OCI, which is why they don't spec their own brand filter for the application.

If someone bought a case of Amsoil filters before the TSB from Amsoil, then they would not have seen it.

ALSO, if one goes to the Amsoil website and does a cross from a different manufacture's filter number, they will be able to come up with a cross to a Amsoil number, so it might be possible to buy the Amsoil branded filter using the cross ref. number tool instead of the vehicle lookup.

In my case.....I had planned on staying with a 5K mile OCI with a quality synthetic oil.....using a longer WIX filter that meets ALL the identical specifications......just longer.
I have already had the front valve cover off......and don't have any sludge / "gelling" issue with my 2003 1MZFE motor......and have already changed the PCV valve.

It pays to keep reading up on whatever vehicle we own.....
 
Originally Posted By: Gary Allan
The whole scenario doesn't quite add up. A filter just doesn't catastrophically clog.




To me it sounds like the engine self destructed at 48k. It probably had nothing to do with oil or filter...we lost the engine in our 09 Forester, and I was running a PureOne and Rotella 5w40 Synthetic.

Most likely Toyota saw an "potential" cause in the oil/oil filter since (most likely) the owner didn't have proof they followed the manufacturer's maintenance schedule and found it easy to blame the filter to avoid warranty work.
 
There are just not enough facts in this to comment, or proclaim a loser. Where is the original writer? What board?

I will say this, there is NO WAY in whatever the filter at 12K using ASL(?) (25K oil) was clogged with sludge. Let's just rule that out right now.

I also don't believe the "Amsoil also did nothing for me and acted as if they did not care."

Folks, this really sounds like internet lore.

Here are the bulletins:
https://www.amsoil.com/dealer/dealertechservices.aspx

https://www.amsoil.com/dealer/techservicesbulletin/Filtration/TSB FL-2009-05-01 EaO Toyota.pdf

https://www.amsoil.com/dealer/techservic...ge%20Issues.pdf
 
I'd also have a hard time figuring that Amsoil played some Pontius Pilate routine with him. I would not be something where the mere discontinuing the recommendation of the use of the filter meant that they weren't still warranting it. The EaO57 was available until quite recently.
 
demarpaint, out of sheer curiosity, have you taken any business law classes? If so, I can't imagine you having done well at all in them; although, judging by other responses in this thread, you are not alone...
 
Originally Posted By: deeter16317
...we lost the engine in our 09 Forester, and I was running a PureOne and Rotella 5w40 Synthetic.
... ....
Again, I am the only guy with new Toyota and Subaru engines self destructing around here!
wink.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Pablo
There are just not enough facts in this to comment, or proclaim a loser. Where is the original writer? What board?


This link will take you to the first page of the thread, it was on the Tacoma World Forums board. The poster's username is "B brand", and is a new member. The discussion was about "The best motor oil", and he comments towards the end of the thread about his experience with Amsoil.

The rig in question is an 07 Tacoma that he says he bought brand new.

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/58460-best-motor-oil.html
 
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