How often to change oil filter?

Oil filter is the most important component in your car oil lubrication system. The oil filter keeps the engine oil always in clean condition before circulation to the entire engine oil lubrication system and ports.

Clean engine oil is very important to let all the engine oil function properly, such as lubricating, cooling, cleaning, protecting metal from corrosion, and preventing compression leaks. The oil filter helps remove contaminants, debris, tiny grains of metal, etc., from your car engine's oil that can accumulate over time.

What happens when you don't change your oil filter?

If you don't change your oil filter, then it gets clogged. When the main filter (inside the oil filter) gets clogged, the bypass valve will open to let the oil flow anyways. In a short time, it's okay, but not for a long period.

That means, the oil sediments (tiny grains of metal, tar and soot washed down from the cylinders, corrosion products, etc.) will circulate in the engine lubrication system until they find a calm place to settle down.

At some point, the smallest oil ducts will act as a filter gets clogged, which means the lubrication gets much worse and eventually insufficient to do the job. You won't notice when this happens. You will have abnormal oil consumption and lower engine power sooner, and as a result, the engine fails.

How often to change oil filter?

The cleaner engine oil circulates inside the engine lubrication system; it's better to protect the engine performance. But, the engine combustion processes produced many contaminants (sediments), which could degrade your car engine's oil over time.

Changing the oil filter more frequent is the best action to do because your car engine's oil would be cleaner, but these are costly. A longer period can save some money, but it's too risky. So, how often change oil filter?

Each car has a different type of engine as well as its maintenance. Cars with gasoline engines have a slightly different maintenance pattern from diesel-engined vehicles, as wll as the technology, large engine capacity, and the quality of engine oil used. The size of oil filters is also matters. The bigger the surface area of the filter element, the longer a filter can perform well.

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The best way to know how often should you change oil filter is from your car owner manual book, mainly in your car's warranty and maintenance section. Generally, most parts and oil manufacturers say to replace oil filters with every oil change, which should occur every 3,000 miles or three months (whichever comes first).

So, every 3,000 miles or three months of engine oil car usage, you should change your engine oil with an oil filter. Anyway, it's better to always stick around to your owner's manual book for oil filter replacement decisions.