Reuse Mobil 1 EP Filter?

[Aurora09]

Hi everyone,

I just did my winter OC and am using my first Mobil 1 EP filter. The oil is Valvoline maxlife nextgen 5W30 for winter. I understand these filters are capable of running 15,000 miles with Mobils extended interval oils, but I wonder if it is OK to reuse this filter one or two more times provided I am using the same type of oil? I plan on changing around 3,000 miles.

 

[JC1]

You should be fine.

Regards, JC.

 

[Voltmaster]

It will be fine.

 

[Wolf359]

In the old days, they used to tell you to change the filter every other oil change. 3k is a little early unless you do lots of city driving and not much highway. You should be fine to reuse. Are you planning on taking the filter out and draining the old oil or are you just going to leave the filter in?

 

[Aurora09]

I'm just gonna leave it on. I'm going to use the same type of oil one or two more times. I don't want to break the seal. Once I switch back to 10W30 I'll change the filter.

 

[gregk24]

Originally Posted By: Aurora09
I'm just gonna leave it on. I'm going to use the same type of oil one or two more times. I don't want to break the seal. Once I switch back to 10W30 I'll change the filter.


Out of friendly curiosity...why do you use a 10w30? 5w30 exceeds that oil weight in almost every way.

 

[kschachn]

You can only leave the filter on for two OCIs if you have a Honda. Jk, jk.

And why are you going back to 10w30?

 

[Rolla07]

You will be fine but why bother using an extended filter if ur gona swap at 3k miles...id rather use a cheaper filter and run 5k miles minimum. But thats just my personal preference.

 

[Artem]

I've ran Mobil 1 oil filters up to their rated 15k capacity and my UOA reports showed excellent filtration.

 

[901Memphis]

I'd run it up to a year minimum even if it's in there 3-4 changes up to the 15,000 miles. The filter will actually trap more smaller micron sized particles as the cellulose blended media begins to plug the larger holes over time.

I'd be more interested to see if we can get you past your 3000 mile anxiety.

 

[Sayjac]

M1 easily good for 2 more 3k mi ocis, even if you don't use the exact same type oil.

That said, you should really consider stretching out to a minumum ~5k oci. 5k miles is no problem for today's oils.

And though it won't hurt anything, also agree that there's no need to go to 10w30 in the summer. 5w30 has it covered.

 

[dnewton3]

At 3k mile OCIs, that filter would be easily good for about 5 cycles.

I have run average Puro Classic (10k)and FL400S (15k) filters for extended OCIs. I'd like to think the M1 filter could hang with them at the very least ...

 

[Aurora09]

At this point I'm using 5W30 for the winter and 10W30 in the summer because that is what is called for. I will definitely re-use this filter as long as I'm running 5W30 but I'll switch filters once I switch back to 10W30. I'm sure I'll change the oil a few more times before spring. I chose this particular filter for the superior filtration.

 

[Aurora09]

I'd like to add that I noticed today after about 400 miles of mainly highway driving I noticed a little bit of an oil smell when I ran the defroster. I have never noticed this when running 10W30 in any situation. I am curious to learn how 5W30 is a superior product to 10W30 in my non-modern engine (4.0 V8)

 

[Aurora09]

I don't have 3,000 mile anxiety. I don't have a problem going 4,000 or 5,000 miles. One time I went 6,000 on Castrol and a fram orange filter. The only reason I changed it early this time is due to the cold weather the 10W30 felt too thick if I didn't warm the car up enough and I figured I could cut the idle time down using 5W30.

 

[dnewton3]

You have an 18 year old vehicle with only 123k miles on it; you average about 7k miles a year, presuming you've not signficantly changed operational parameters.

At that rate, you'll never wear the engine out, regardless of what you put in it.

You are welcome to use high-end lubes and fitlers, but at 3-6k mile intervals, there is no reason to suspect that a decent dino 5w30 and typical brand name filter would not get that down the road for another 18 years ...

You can either feel or think your way through the next 123k miles; both will safely get the car there. One is just going to be a lot less expensive. By doubling the FCI, and OCI, you can easily start to work on the ROI factor, regardless of which path you choose for products.

 

[Jim Allen]

I would also point out that the 5W30 of today is far superior and more robust than the 5W30 of 1996 when you Aurora was built. A Mobil 1 5W30, if that is your choice of brand, can be run year round and for extended periods... both time and miles. IMO, depending on the operational cycle of the car which I don't know, you could run AT LEAST 7.5K miles and 2 years on a fill. Probably longer.

I have three passenger vehicles, all of which I have owned long term: an '86 F250 diesel (owned since '87 and 7K miles), a '00 Honda Accord (bought new with 7 miles) and a '05 F150 (bought in '08 with 7K miles). We put 5-7K annual miles on the two new rigs and 2-3 on the older one. Our maintenance schedule has slowly evolved out of a time based factor and is now done only by miles. The '05 Ford averages out to 18 months to 2.5 years per OCI (I recently extended it's mileage limit to 15K), the Honda to about 18 months (10K miles) and the old Ford is at an 8K interval and it's now at 5K 2 years into the run.

I didn't just arbitrarily decide to do this. I kept extending the OCI after UOAs and learn, or should I say proved what many experts say, that oil doesn't wear a watch. In reasonable periods of time, the oil doesn't deteriorate just from being in the crankcase. It's other factors that most influence the life of the oil, operational cycle, engine condition, environmental/storage conditions, etc. If you are storing the car in a good place and when it's drive , it isn't short hopped, rather it's driven long enough to fully warm it up and then operated a decent period beyond that, you are operating the car in a near optimal situation.

As to your proposed use of the filter, I concur with those who see no problem with it. Forgive my stepping past your question and pointing out what I see is a flaw and resource wastage with your current plan. If you do some searches in the UOA section, you will find tests of 30 year old oil that tested as new, or UOAs on car with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ,6 year time intervals. Further reading will show what factors influence the life of the oil and for the most part, time is one of the lesser ones.

Stepping off the soapbox now!

 

[Whimsey]

Using the wonderful resources this site has I've been extending all my OCI/FCI's intervals. All 3 of the vehicles were bought new and well cared for. The wife's 2005 Explorer averages approximately 9,000 miles every 6 months. She gets an oil change every 6 months, using a quality synthetic and quality filter such as Mobil 1, Pure 1, K&N, and even Motorcraft this last time. I still have that filter so I can open her up and post the pics here. My 2002 F150 just went from 1 year, 5,000 mile OCI/FCI's to 18 month, 7,500 changes. This is using Motorcraft synblend and Motorcraft filter. My 1996 Contour has been getting 8,000-10,000 mile OCI/FCI's for a number of years. That is usually 24 month intervals. I use a quality synthetic oil and filters such as Mobil 1 and Pure 1. This car is mainly our "vacation" car. It travels thousands of miles in short time periods. Looking in the oil fills the valve trains are all spotless, not even varnish. These schedules work for me so I can change the oil myself in decent weather outdoors.

Whimsey

 

[Aurora09]

Thank you. I will consider extending the drain interval up to or past 5,000 maybe I'll get a UOA done around 4,000 to provide a guideline. I do drive the car pretty hard but I drive gently until everything is warmed up. I'm still having trouble with the concept of running 5W30 year round as I thought 10W30 is supposed to provide better protection in the summer and as I said before I think this 5W30 is burning off more easily due to smelling oil when I ran the defroster the other day.

 

[Jim Allen]

Originally Posted By: Aurora09
Thank you. I will consider extending the drain interval up to or past 5,000 maybe I'll get a UOA done around 4,000 to provide a guideline. I do drive the car pretty hard but I drive gently until everything is warmed up. I'm still having trouble with the concept of running 5W30 year round as I thought 10W30 is supposed to provide better protection in the summer and as I said before I think this 5W30 is burning off more easily due to smelling oil when I ran the defroster the other day.


Well that USED to generally be true about 10W30 vs 5W30 but not so much any more ... with name brand oils and certainly not M1. That information dates to the era of your Aurora, when even the best 5W30s would shear quickly. These old ideas hang in one's mind until you purge them by studying the latest information. Oil has come a LONG way since 1996! Stay here long enough and your mind will be changed!

If you smell oil in the defroster, and that's truly what it was, you may have other troubles... such as an oil leak dripping on a hot engine or a bad PCV valve or leak in the PCV system that's allowing crankcase vapors to escape. If it's using a significant amount of oil, you should be seeing the dipstick level going down. Sometimes underhood smells will waft out from under the hood and get sucked into the fresh air vents on the cowl. If you continue to smell it, try putting the HVAC on recirc and that should stop it. You can then inspect the engine for seepage. The car is old enough to have minor engine oil seepage that you can smell.