Little oil in my oil filter...Should I be concerned?

by **Solorange** » Mon May 25, 2009 1:26 pm

I changed my oil today a noticed that there was hardly any oil in my oil filter. Usually when I pull the oil filter off, oil spills everywhere and runs down the side of the engine. This time around no oil spilled out and I could see that there was not much oil in the oil filter. Typically I have to lift my passenger front side of the car so I can reach the plug. This time I put up the car a little higher than normal. Also I changed the oil about two hours after driving my car. Should this be any concern?

by **unbalancedwood** » Mon May 25, 2009 2:12 pm

bad oil pump?
bad oil filter?

what brand filter was it?

Ive done oil changes on cars with no oil in the filter and bone dry when drained...pretty scary but they still managed to drive it to the store...

by **ASG14** » Mon May 25, 2009 2:22 pm

On top of ^

How much oil did you drain out?

by **Solorange** » Mon May 25, 2009 6:23 pm

I use a K&N oil filter. I had the normal amount of drain out. Not suspecting any leaks. A bad oil pump sounds scary. How much does that typically cost to fix and is there a way it can be checked?

by **D-money** » Mon May 25, 2009 8:41 pm

if your pump was bad you would have a warning light due to the drop in pressure. my guess is it was able to drain back in due to the car being higher in the front. thats what i try to do when i change mine

by **Ilovemylara** » Mon May 25, 2009 8:41 pm

Do you remember if it was low before you changed it, and if the car was acting "funny"? If it was at least a half quart low, then the oil might have just drained back out of the filter because it sits a slight angle on our motors Also, here is a link to a new oil pump on ebay for 100 bucks. Not bad http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/94-01-TO ... 4009r10550

by **Solorange** » Tue May 26, 2009 4:06 am

^No, it looked like the correct amount drained out. I have a 10 quart oil drum and I changed the oil in my car and my wifes car and it looks like I got about 9 quarts in there if anything my wife's car was less. (5quarts from my car and 4quarts from my wifes) The car is running perfectly fine.

I think I going to put 500miles on the car and pull the oil filter off and check again. How much oil would I lose if I don't drain the oil from the oil pan and just pull the filter?

by **Ilovemylara** » Tue May 26, 2009 4:07 am

not enough to do any harm.

by **Pogs** » Tue May 26, 2009 7:45 am

I thought that when the car is turned off that all the oil drains back into the oil pan. Therefore, there should be traces of oil in the filter but it shouldnt be full. Please correct me if im wrong?

by **youngblood** » Tue May 26, 2009 2:30 pm

Pogs wrote:I thought that when the car is turned off that all the oil drains back into the oil pan. Therefore, there should be traces of oil in the filter but it shouldnt be full. Please correct me if im wrong?

Modern oil filters have both a bypass valve as well as an anti-drainback valve. The A.D. valve should keep a fair amount of oil in the filter after engine shutdown so that there is no oil starvation during the next start up. An oil filter may not be FULL when removed but it should have quite a bit left in it. If this valve malfunctions, one would assume that there would be a bit less oil left in the filter at shutdown, but not necessarily any associated engine damage.
Also, I'm not sure but the bypass valve may prevent the filter from filling up if it is defective or if the oil was excessively dirty.
As far as a light coming on to warn of low oil pressure- older cars with an 'idiot light' would not turn on that light until you had about 5psi and you were completely funked! I would hope that modern cars would do better than that considering their updated technology but I wouldn't count on it.

by **gnegroni** » Tue May 26, 2009 5:18 pm

Hit K&N with a complaint...

by **Solorange** » Tue May 26, 2009 6:32 pm

youngblood wrote:
Pogs wrote:I thought that when the car is turned off that all the oil drains back into the oil pan. Therefore, there should be traces of oil in the filter but it shouldnt be full. Please correct me if im wrong?

Modern oil filters have both a bypass valve as well as an anti-drainback valve. The A.D. valve should keep a fair amount of oil in the filter after engine shutdown so that there is no oil starvation during the next start up. An oil filter may not be FULL when removed but it should have quite a bit left in it. If this valve malfunctions, one would assume that there would be a bit less oil left in the filter at shutdown, but not necessarily any associated engine damage.
Also, I'm not sure but the bypass valve may prevent the filter from filling up if it is defective or if the oil was excessively dirty.
As far as a light coming on to warn of low oil pressure- older cars with an 'idiot light' would not turn on that light until you had about 5psi and you were completely funked! I would hope that modern cars would do better than that considering their updated technology but I wouldn't count on it.

Interesting concept. Attached is a link to K&N. http://www.knfilters.com/oilfilter.htm They call it the anti-drainback valve. Maybe that is what the issue was.

I remember in the past changing the oil early in the morning before I even drive the car for the day and its always had oil in it. I guess I will find out soon when I check after 500miles.

If you read the PDF from Fram, what type of system do our cars have? Full Flow Oil System or Bypass Oil System? And do you know what the requirement Toyota has for oil filters for our car? Meaning does our cars have both the anti-drainback valve and bypass in the filter or one or the other? See the link below.

http://www.fram.com/pdf/EngineOilFiltering.pdf

by **TMMK Toy** » Wed May 27, 2009 7:33 pm

Chris, I doubt it's much to worry about. Prob. the higher angle contributed to less oil in the filter.

by **youngblood** » Thu May 28, 2009 5:35 pm

TMMK Toy wrote:Chris, I doubt it's much to worry about. Prob. the higher angle contributed to less oil in the filter.

I agree^^^^^. Small block chevys and many others mount the filter vertically and thus are totally full when you remove them. Makes the anti-drainback valve kind of pointless.

BTW- The Toyota brand filter for these cars has both types of valves in it.
Seems to be standard.

by **youngblood** » Thu May 28, 2009 5:39 pm

This is a fun website. I used it to choose the brand of filter I run (Toyota, of course). It deterred me from an old favorite of mine, as well.
http://minimopar.knizefamily.net/oilfilters/toyota.html

Little oil in my oil filter...Should I be concerned?

Little oil in my oil filter...Should I be concerned?

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