I just took delivery of a Unipart filter ready for an oil change (already a big Scoobynet faux pas for daring to buy a cheaper brand ).

Now please don't get me wrong, I'm on your side with much of this **** clap trap that is mentioned on here, but this filter had instructions printed on the side.

On intial viewing, I laughed at how on earth could you need instructions on how to fit a screw on filter, admittedly it is only three steps though. But the first step was....

Fill the filter with oil


Well, blow my big ends and push a banana up my tailpipe, the ***** might be right on one or two things!

 

Even Pete pre-fills his and I'm not refering to his colostomy bag

 

Still b0ll0x mate...If it's so important, how do fill the filter on a vehicle with centrifugal oil filters, ie bmw, vauxhalls, maxda, etc. etc? And they are usually at the top of the engine! how long before they fill? and they drain everytime the engine is switched off...How do fill a filter which is fitted to the side of an engine..Honda, nissan, some rovers?
dave

 

I would hope they had differant instructions printed on the side. But if the filter had it prined on the side to prefill, then i`d prefill.

Jase

 

well maybe its something as simple as filters on the bottom of the engine require pre-filling...


im sure they wouldnt go to the cost of printing on the side of a filter for no reason at all

 

It was just a picture. Of course, it could mean just lubricate the seal. But by the looks of the oil can, it appears to be missing the seal and going into the filter

 

Calm down, your scaring the *****

 

Not a great pic,but i cant prefill my oil filter !! LOL

 

Hi
Just thought i'd join in
I used to own a Alfa Sud (1350 ti ) as you may or may not be aware these have a flat four engine.To save a few quid for a good start i'd use a cheap halfords filter,What ever oil was there,then take no notice of any instructions given in service/hayes book.Two oil changes later(8000 mls total - 150mls after second oil change) one completely f$&k flat four crank & one piston
Found out later that the Alfa filter had a non return valve and was only £1.90 more than halfords.A new short engine would have been £850 + labour (early eighties) so being an alfa it went to the scrappy(doo) in the sky.
Sorry for long post but five extra minutes and reading instrutions may well save a lot of money plus you may find if you do an **** change your oil level won't have moved from when you finished

 

What a fuss!
I always fill my Impreza filter, takes about 1/4 litre, simple good engineering practice.
Cars with filters 'upside-down' ie MGB's you cannot practically do this, so you don't/ The housing has a one way valve in it to prevent draining over time.

My 911 has a huge filter mounted sideways in the dry sump tank. I saturate the filter ( it swallows a whole litre) till it nearly spills when held sideways and then screw it into place. Porsche tell you to do this, and I think they know better than you or I?

Has never done any harm to help the engine over the 30 years I've messed with the 32 cars I've owned.

I think really you are all baiting PS Lewis?

Graham.

 

It really is worthwhile pre-filling the oil filter. It is obvious that it cuts down the time with no oil pressure or feed to the bearings etc when starting the engine initially after the oil change.

Despite all the arguments, how long does it actually take to do the pre-fill anyway?

Les

 

The Impreza filter is very very small, and mine takes about 5 mins to saturate, about the time it takes to get the old hot oil into a can to take to the oil dump.
You can fill it 5 times and it will all soak up into the filter gauze, you really wonder where it all goes..
Graham

 

Just pre-fill the filter - it's good practise and takes 30 seconds!

 

Personally, I would always use an O/E Subaru filter. The cost saving on a Fram or whatever is pennies.
I would suggest you always fill the filter with oil until it will take no more.
If you don't want to, its your choice and nothing to argue about.

Several years ago when I was suddenly offered a slot on the ramp to do an oil change, scheduled for later in the week, I had the oil but not the filter so I used one of the stock motor factor filters already in the garage. Oil pressure on my SPA digital was down a few psi to what I expected. I put the O/E Subaru on two days later and oil pressure was exactly as expected.
I don't know if the after market had a more open filter mesh or more filtration mesh area resulting in lower pressure but I decided to stick with the O/E item from there on.
BTW, the filter will absorb oil for 20 mins or whatever, just like Graham says.

 

I always pre-fill my filter .... good engineering practice

I do NOT - as the **** ScoobyNetters do - soak it OVERNIGHT!!

The Subaru Main Dealers do NOT pre-fill ........

My main objection is directed at those **** idiots who remove the crank-angle sensor and tell others that it should be done before starting the engine!

Pete

 

I do remove the crank sensor and cam sensor when doing a oil and filter change............................................ .............. But only to give them a quick clean as a build up of dirt can affect the readings and did result in poor running on my car. so 10 mins while the oil is draining no problem.

 

Pete . .Could you please elaborate as to why its good practice! . . .When I change oil, I drain it . .Fill it 4 litres . . .Turn over the engine for a bit, and then add the final litre! . .

So whats with the prefill???

 

Yay another oil topic

TBH tho the crank sensor thing is a bit iffy tbh.

Prefill is a good idea if like Graham says you can do it.

All this overnight or leave it for half hour stuff is rubbish.

 

The oil is pumped from the sump-through the filter-and onto the bearing surfaces ........ if it takes 2 seconds to fill the filter before a strong feed is issued to the bearings I would like to reduce that 2 seconds to as close to nil seconds as possible.......and I believe pre-filling it does that.

Pete

 

Thanks Pete . . .