askthemercedesmechanic.com

Car makers worry about their reputation. Well at least some of them do. But they also care about beating the competition by advertising for low maintenance cost. Those car manufacturers calculate the estimated annual maintenance cost based on changing the oil filer every other oil change, or 6000 to 15000 miles. This ultimately reduces the cost of the vehicle maintenance. On the other hand, oil filter manufacturers suggest that the filter is to be changed every oil change.

Now, which word should you take for granted, neither.I wanted to get a third opinion, so I interviewed many mechanics, and almost all agreed on the fact that the every other oil change is a false economy. All mechanics highly recommended changing the oil filter every oil change. This was back up by their experience, and science. today’s engines use a filtration process called “full-flow”. With this technology, all the oil that’s goes from the reservoir to the engine passes through the filter first. This means that the primary defense line to the engine’s crankshaft, and cam bearings is the oil filter. It’s purpose is removing unwanted solid entrants to the system, such as dirt, carbon, and metal particles. These entrants can damage the bearing, journal and cylinder wall surfaces once they reach the engine.

The filter absorbs and filtrates against abrasion and premature wear to the engine. Over time, the filter accumulates dirt that has been trapped, until it reaches a point where it is possible for oil passage to be obstructed. The filter should be changed before it reaches a point where it’s an obstruction to the flow of oil, or even facing the danger of becoming plugged.

The good and bad news in one, is that filters are designed to prevent from catastrophic failures due to improper lubrication, therefore it has a bypass valve, which will allow the oil to pass through with the dirt once it reaches the filtration capacity, preventing from loss of lubrication and allowing the dirt to enter the engine, and cause accelerated wear. In conclusion, oil filters cost less than ten dollars, so you may just as well change it with every oil change because the worst case scenario would be that you lost a 100 dollars over the life of your life. On other hand, the worst case scenario for not changing it on time is a new engine which would cost you no less than 1200 dollars.