What exactly is your oil filter removing?

[Elkins45]

To be clear I'm not advocating for just leaving the filter there for 50K miles. I'm the guy who swaps the filter on a new car at 200 miles and then changes oil and filter again at 1000. I'm just curious after the initial break in wear if they are really trapping all that much stuff. Guess I need to read some of the linked threads.

 

[jongies3]

Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix
"We Don't Need No Stinkin' Efficiency!"

Toyota and Honda's motto for their filters! Lol

 

[SR5]

Originally Posted By: SubieRubyRoo
Search this forum for posts by member "car51". He has compiled enough cut-open filters to educate anyone on what a filter removes from the engine. He's also a veteran, so IMHO this board owes him two sincere "Thank You For Your Service(s), Mr. Car51!"

Yes Car51 is a great guy and he has cut open many oil filters.

 

[CT8]

Originally Posted By: ecotourist
Originally Posted By: Johnny2Bad
They lasted as long as the engines with filters at the time. SBC V8 '55 no filter boss, added in '56. You'd get 100K Miles out of either of them. 120 was an outer.

Oh for the days of smoking cars. People would try to figure out which side of their V8 smoked - though I don't suppose it mattered very much.

Engine rebuilds (or at least valve and ring jobs) were once fairly common. Engines simply wore out. They must be pretty rare nowadays (with the notable exception of engines with having some sort of defect).
Back then just like today some people do not properly maintain their cars.

 

[blupupher]

It depends on the vehicle. In a new/well running vehicle, it catches almost nothing, buecause there is noting to catch.

As cars age, things can change. You tend to get some carbon and such that gets filtered out, and if you have problems, you can get a lot more.

My truck with 2500 miles on filter, ~150,000 miles on the motor (was a replacement motor that I got with 120,000 miles on it):


Mom's Saturn Vue with ~7000 miles on filter, 135,000 miles on vehicle:


My brother in laws truck with 4000 miles on filter, ~165,000 miles on truck:


As you can see, the first two just have a little carbon in the filter, the last one, well that truck is on it's last legs, but having the particles filtered out helps it last a little longer.

 

[kschachn]

Originally Posted By: jongies3
Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix
"We Don't Need No Stinkin' Efficiency!"

Toyota and Honda's motto for their filters! Lol

Maybe, but then again I've gotten nearly 400K on my old Sienna using OEM filters and my consumption is not abnormal, about 1 quart in 3500 miles.

 

[UncleDave]

Blupupher,

Curious, do you know you brothers trucks maintenance history?

Why did your truck need a new mill?

UD

 

[blupupher]

Originally Posted By: UncleDave
Blupupher,

Curious, do you know you brothers trucks maintenance history?

Why did your truck need a new mill?

UD

He changed the oil every 3000-6000 miles at various lube shops, no idea what oil brand or weight, no idea on filters.
He said he knows he went 10,000 miles once. He never checks the oil level on it.
He has owned the truck since new and never did any maintenance on it in 150,000 miles except occasional oil changes and I think he said changed the air filter a few times. Post with more info if really interested
It was the first year of the 3v 5.4 in the F150, which is know to have issues (cam phaser issues).


I got my truck as a gift from my cousin, it has spun the driver side cam (the cam sprocket was spinning on the cam) when I got it. No idea how that happened, he said he parked it and it was running fine, 18 months later when I got it, this is what it was doing. My aunt said she had started the truck every few months during that time, but never drove it.

https://youtu.be/XlrlYvqwjwc

Had a motor from a '03 with ~120,000 miles put in it by a local shop. It uses a qt every 1500 miles.

 

[Nick1994]

Nah, no-one is a big enough weirdo to cut open an oil filter and post pictures...

I'd certainly never do such a thing...

 

[SilverFusion2010]

They’re mostly rock catchers. They don’t catch most wear particles, but they will catch bigger stuff from failing parts and save the rest of your engine from the carnage. Chunks of sludge that break off and could potentially clog journals if the filter didn’t catch them.

 

[ZeeOSix]

I wouldn't call 80% at 5 microns a "rock catcher", but would if it was 50% at 20 microns.

 

[goodtimes]

The filter removes what the air filter and ductwork let in and gets into the oil, combustion products, and material generated by the engine inside. Some dirt gets in through the openings people touch like the dipstick tube and oil cap. The oil filter also has to remove the material it puts in the oil, like media shedding (USCAR-36 tests for this), dirt from the box, dirt from manufacturing, burs on metal, and pieces of glue from end cap potting (Fram TG and EG design especially prone in my findings).

Most OE oil filters don't state multi pass efficiency. Motorcraft oil filters, made by Purolator, pass USCAR-36, don't know about others. OE probably have their own tests. You trust their name like when you select the car. When it says 90% @ X microns multi pass efficiency on a box it does not mean 10% of that size particle is in the oil at oil change time. If only things were that simple.