Dilemma - oil drained, car on ramps and toyota parts gave me a 90915-YZZF1 Filter ?

[sas0611]

I decided to do my own oil change with Mobil Synth 1. Last time I took my wife's prius for a change and brought my own Mobil 1 oil. I told them to use this in place of their standard bulk oil. I think they kept my Mobil Synth 1 and used dino. So for my new prius, I bought everything I needed ahead of time and began the change late this afternoon. With the car up on my ramps, I drained the old oil and installed the drain plug with a new crush ring. I pulled off the old filter and although it was tight, the filter wrench I bought from toyota made it a piece of cake.

Here's where the project took it's first detour. The old filter had different numbers and was physically shorter than the one the Toyota parts guy gave me. This was the first time the oil had been changed on this car so the old filter was the one that came from Toyota's assembly line. I had the prius oil change PDF file on driveway with me and the document didn't mention the part number of my new filter - 90915-YZZF1. It was getting dark and I was needing to get my car back together. I considered putting the dirty oil back in and the dirty filter and getting the 'right' filter monday.


I caught the parts department at my toyota dealership just before they closed (saturday 5:00pm) and before it got totally dark outside. He told me that the filter they sold me the 90915-YZZF1 was the one they'd have used had I had them change my oil. It doesn't effect any warranty and it was perfectly fine and commended me for being safe and asking before installing it since I had doubts.

So I put the new filter on and dropped 3.3 quarts into the crankcase. I had my doubts and had it not been saturday at 5:00 I'd probably contact another dealership's parts department to get a go ahead on the filter I had and if they would'nt bless it have gone and gotten the shorter one speced out in the prius oil change document i had.

My question is should I be concerned now ? I am admittedly a bit obcessive compulsive and feeling that maybe I should get the shorter filter, and come monday, drain the new Mobil Synth 1 oil out again, save it, put on the shorter compliant filter and pour the same new oil back in. I really don't want to do this if the information they gave me a Toyota is right. It'd be a waste of time if it didn't accomplish anything.

It looks from the posts about this filter, there is mostly a consensus that this filter is fine to use and some think it might be better. I suppose I should take my dealerships word and leave it alone but that little element of doubt is amittedly troublesome. My purpose was to perform the oil change and know that my expensive oil was making it into my crankcase and not being ripped off. I wanted things to be better - not worse... I don't want my new car to experience any problems from something I did and then denied repairs by Toyota. I know this is a very remote possibility but any thoughts specifically about the 90915-YZZF1 filter under the above context would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[9G-man]

Relax, you got the right oil filter. It's the same one I use, and the one my local dealer sells/uses, and my mail-order bulk dealer sends me.

Did you check the dip-stick after you refilled the oil?

[Ct. Ken V]

Hi, sas0611,

Nice dog!! We've been down to your neck of the woods for the big dog show they have at the fairgrounds on the PA side of the Delaware river not too far from the Frenchtown bridge. We have friends that live in Hopewell, NJ & we usually stay at the Stage Depot/The Inn at Pennington (NJ).

I have a short question/comment first, then a longer comment that should relax your fears.

Q : Why would you think you might have to drain ALL of your Mobil 1 oil out (as you say in your next-to-last paragraph) to refill after chg'g the oil filter? At the most you should only lose just the oil inside the oil filter itself. Short comment : Every car I've owned has always had the oil filter mounted higher than the crankcase, so none of the oil contained in the crankcase is lost if you just remove the oil filter. I would NOT save any of the oil from inside the oil filter though. But now you know you don't even have to worry about this issue at all thanks to the answers from 9G-man & your dealer.

Now for the longer comment about your original & shorter filter :
Many years ago when I bought my Peugeot Diesel wagon, it came with an oil filter marked with some letters & numbers (I can't remember what they were now from back in 1974) followed by a "-5". I also had seen some documentation somewhere confirm'g the same numbers. I bought a few ahead to do my own oil chg's (like you). If I remember correctly, the manufacturer recommended the oil chg's be done every 1,500 miles (oil was very cheap back then) because of all the blow-by past the piston rings due to the high compression ratio (24 :1) of the diesel engine (the oil would be completely pitch black only a couple of hundred miles after being freshly installed). During the use of those filters I repeatedly had many instances of the oil pressure warn'g light coming on. Each time I would immediately push in the clutch, shut the engine off, coast to the side of the road, lift the hood to check for any signs of splattered or lost oil, check the dipstick level, & not find'g any signs of a problem, restart the car & be on my way until the next repeat of the warn'g light coming on again a few hundred miles later.

The Peugeot dealer I bought the original "-5" filters from ran out of them & told me he couldn't get any more (I had not told him they were for the diesel---I had just asked simply for that part # only. In calling other dealer parts departments, I found that nobdy else had them either. I finally found one dealer in a small out-of-the-way dealership in a small town that told me he still had some left. I told him not to sell any to anybody else until I got there. When I arrived I asked how many he had & told him I'd take ALL of them. Very surprised, he asked why I wanted so many of that part # & for what appication. I told him nobody else had them & I needed them for my diesel wagon. He told me why the factory stopped ship'g them (& that he could still get some special ordered for only internal use at the dealership level. After his explanation (that follows), I passed on the "-5"s & bought the "-10"s (from then on) that he said were for my application.

It seems that the "-5" filter was a 5 micron filter initially installed at the factory to catch any "engine break-in" particles to be replaced at the 1st oil chg (& any & all subsequent oil chg's) by the standard "-10" (or 10 micron) oil filters & if I had just told any dealer that I needed an oil filter for the Peugeot diesel, that's what I would have gotten (the "-10") & it would have been the proper one. The only other use (& the way he said they could special order the "-5" for use inside the dealership only) was for a one-time installation whenever they rebuilt either a gas or diesel engine (to be replaced at the next oil chg by the standard 10 micron filter). He also volunteered that they were receiving many reports of customers having oil pressure warn'g light issues on the diesel because of all the blow-by soot & contaminents clogging the smaller 5 micron filter openings & that's when I told him I had been having the same scares too.

So, see, this may be a similar reason why your original filter (& also your pdf documentation) carried a different part # than the replacement one you were sold. Don't you worry now. I only wish it hadn't taken me so long back then to find out the facts (you learned right away) & then I wouldn't have had so many operator-initiatated engine shutdowns (sometimes in dark, un-friendly, or isolated & scary locations). So now feel free to enjoy your care-free rides, you 2-Prius family, you.

Ken (in Bolton,Ct)

[jayman]

You will be fine with the oil filter you installed

[sas0611]

Thanks to all of you who replied with reassuring information. I have one more question to fine tune my next DIY oil change.

I really wasn't sure how much to tighten the drain plug when I put it back in. It was in pretty darn tight from the factory. I tried to replicate the force it took to get it out but maybe that was too much. Any rule of thumb besides buying a torque wrench and putting it on the plug (which I'm willing to do). I noticed that the original crush ring wasn't indented/crushed when I took it off ? When I do my next change should I be concerned if I 'crushed' the crush ring slightly. I don't think I came close to damaging plug or oil pan. I believe I cranked it till snug under low torque and then cranked it another 1/2 turn - i imagine it then would have taken significant force to rotate it another full turn. I guess I'd say I tightened it so it was tight. I won't know until I pull the plug on the next change whether it was so tight as to crush the crush ring.

How tight should the oil filter be on. I couldn't really eyeball the point where the gasket of the filter mated with metal so I'm not sure whether I might have handtightened more than the 3/4 turn after that point. I basically hand tightened it till it wouldn't move any more. I'm not a gorilla or a weight lifter so I figured that was about right. I then reread the oil change document posted on this site and had some doubts. I then loosened it a bit till it would spin in fairly unencumbered with a minimum force. I then hand tightened it again from this point but was only able to muster a 1/2 turn and at that point it was as tight as I could get it by hand.

I tested for leaks and looked good to go - my only concern is whether I overtighted plug or filter. If it was too lose I suppose I'd be getting leaks - too tight on filter maybe leaks from filter as well.

Thanks again .......

Steve

[Rest]

Auto manufactures seem to routinely change the oil filters used for their vehicles.

[jayman]

Steve

Originally Posted by sas0611

I believe I cranked it till snug under low torque and then cranked it another 1/2 turn - i imagine it then would have taken significant force to rotate it another full turn.

It's pretty subjective to describe how "tight" something is. I put the plug back on "snug" but not "tight." I guess that would be the low side of the recommended factory torque. It's probably more worry to have a stripped out plug than a loose one

Originally Posted by sas0611

How tight should the oil filter be on. I couldn't really eyeball the point where the gasket of the filter mated with metal so I'm not sure whether I might have handtightened more than the 3/4 turn after that point.

That sounds about right. Once the filter makes contact with the mating surface, usually no more than 1 turn past. The nice thing is that the dealership filters have that cellophane wrapper on the end, and the o-ring has what appears to be vasoline on it.

Hope this helps

jay

[Patrick Wong]

90915-YZZF2 is the correct oil filter, which will be the same length as the factory-equipped oil filter. There's nothing wrong with using the longer 90915-YZZF1, however that will require around 0.2 additional quarts to get the oil dipstick level at the same point.

I hand-tighten the oil filter to 1/2 turn past initial contact. I've found that 3/4 turn makes the used filter unnecessarily difficult to remove, even when using my cap oil filter wrench.

Since tightening bolts "by feel" results in wide variability, I use a torque wrench and tighten the drain plug to the specified 28 ft.-lb, using a new drain plug gasket.

[jayman]

Originally Posted by Patrick Wong

Since tightening bolts "by feel" results in wide variability, I use a torque wrench and tighten the drain plug to the specified 28 ft.-lb, using a new drain plug gasket.

Patrick

I'll bet you a round of drinks that at the dealership, they put the drain plug bolt on by feel. I should warn you this could get expensive, I'm a *heavy* drinker

Jay

[qbee42]

You can always use my dad's approach to tightening anything: tight as you can, then another 1/2 turn. He has stripped out a lot of fasteners and broken a lot of screws.

Tom