Need an oil change? Try this

While coming home from lunch today, I passed by an Autozone and saw a poster on the window advertising a $7.99 in-store special, for 5 quarts of Exxon Superflo oil and any STP Oil Filter. (OT: Hey GM 2.2L Ecotec owners, wake up! The cartridge filter for your Ecotec engine normally costs $5, with this offer, you can get 5 quarts of oil and a filter for only $7.99)

http://www.autozone.com/in_our_stores/stor...store_deals.htm

Point of this thread: This is an excellent deal for a good oil and filter for the Prius. The Exxon Superflo oil is identical to the Mobil Clean 5000 chemistry, and as I have mentioned earlier, is most likely composed of a GrpII+ or better basestock and also contains the sodium sulphonate used in the Mobil Clean 5000/7500 oils. Unlike Trop Artic Blend or Havoline, it isn't the best conventional oil on the market, but it definitely isn't far behind. With the introduction of API SM oils and the tougher standards that have been implemented (ring sticking, shearing, etc), the gap between conventional oils and synthetic oils has really minimized, as it has been for the last few years.

The STP Oil Filter is based upon a lower-end, older Champion Labs design that is still being used in some ST and Valuecraft filters. Eventually, they will all convert to the Ecore design, but so far, the 4967 is still of the non-Ecore design, last that I checked. It works well for 5K/6mo drains from past experience with other Champion Lab filters of the same design, so I wouldn't be concerned about this filter clogging up or going into bypass mode provided that you are changing the oil every 6mo/5K.

Note: From what the limited analysis results of API SM conventional oils that I've seen, almost all of them can easily go 5-7K or 6 mo with a solid oil filter provided that most trips are >10 miles. Thus, it can easily do a 6mo/5K service interval in the Prius considering that the gasoline engine isn't on 100% of the time.

Just wanted to pass that along,
Michael