Changing Oil Filter every 5K miles - any better?

Hi guys,
Quick questions, I know oil change is every 10,000 miles, but I wonder if I change the oil filter every 5,000miles, will it make a difference or better?

Probably not. If MB says to change it 10K miles, then you know it's a safe bet.
What you (and everyone else) should be thinking more about is your FUEL and AIR filters.
This is not in direct response to you, but im going to get on my soapbox here:
We constantly deal with injector issues or fuel rail issues or fuel pump issues. All very expensive. Changing your fuel filter every 20K miles will save us SO much money.
The air filter cleans the air... that gets into the cylinders and can score the walls which leads to low compression. Dirty air also prematurely ruins the turbo!
I personally change all three at the same time every 10K miles, but that's just so I don't forget if I did or didn't change it last time.
Can you change the filters earlier than that? Sure. Will it help with longevity? Probably not.
Thanks for asking the question. I've been thinking about this filter issue for a while and how people just focus on the oil filter and forget about the air and fuel filters. You just gave me an excuse to get on my soapbox.

MillionMileSprinter said:

Probably not. If MB says to change it 10K miles, then you know it's a safe bet.
What you (and everyone else) should be thinking more about is your FUEL and AIR filters.
This is not in direct response to you, but im going to get on my soapbox here:
We constantly deal with injector issues or fuel rail issues or fuel pump issues. All very expensive. Changing your fuel filter every 20K miles will save us SO much money.
The air filter cleans the air... that gets into the cylinders and can score the walls which leads to low compression. Dirty air also prematurely ruins the turbo!
I personally change all three at the same time every 10K miles, but that's just so I don't forget if I did or didn't change it last time.
Can you change the filters earlier than that? Sure. Will it help with longevity? Probably not.
Thanks for asking the question. I've been thinking about this filter issue for a while and how people just focus on the oil filter and forget about the air and fuel filters. You just gave me an excuse to get on my soapbox.

Click to expand...

Great Point! Thanks!
I did added fuel filter and air filter + cabin Filter change every 10,000 miles.
Especially this is Diesel, I feel like fuel filter is important.

How often you change the cabin filter?

ADDED: this is my 10,000 miles to change list:
engine oil
oil filter
fuel filter
air & cabin filter
Check TCM Connector
Check Transmission fluid
Check Injector for black death

Not really. Your most important filter is the air filter. Most of what the oil filter is catching, is debris that got into the engine from an outside source, in addition to wear particulate produced by said debris circulating through the engine until the oil filter captures it.
Diesel soot is far too fine to be captured by full flow filters, if thats what you were concerned with. Only the tightest bypass filters available would help that to some degree.

It's been hashed to death on the forum. 5,000 is what I do but that's me because I am not convinced about exaggerated manufacturer's claims. Certainly won't do any harm. Just ensure you use specified oil. There is MB publication saying as low as 3,000 miles. Here read it and formulate you own conclusions. Oh, I see you are a T1N. You will be fine st 10,000 OCI. The doc I referenced is applicable to NCV.

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There are several T1N owners on this forum who have over 600,000 miles on the original engine using a 10,000 mile oil change interval. just use an appropriate oil and 10,000 miles is very conservative.

I would not change the fuel filter every 10,000 miles. This is often enough that you introduce the risk of damage or contaminants due to the process itself. If you feel like that often is necessary install a spin on prefilter or similar.

In my opinion injector pump issues or more often caused by contaminated or substandard fuel. Water contaminated fuel will generally not be fixed by the factory filter.

Many, many T1N owners have achieved multiple hundred thousand miles using the ASSYST maintenance prompt for oil changes. Typically for me the ASSYST OCI Oil Change Interval has been 14 - 16,000 miles. That includes many miles towing my sailboat. The 2004 now has over 325,000 miles original drive train.

My opinion, supported by my ASSYST history, other owner ASSYST history, and MB recommendations.

Changing the oil filter and even the oil at a 5000 mile OCI is a waste of money and resources.

My fuel filter change goal is every 2nd oil change. Using my typical ASSYST OCI that works out to around 30,000 miles. Anecdotal information from other owners suggests that a 20,000 mile fuel filter change is conservative. Further supporting documentation would be that MB has raised the fuel filter change interval to 20,000 miles on newer Sprinter models. The T1N and NCV3 fuel filters are similar in design and size.

My recommendation to those who want to spend money and obsess about all things Sprinter. Put your concerns and spare money into properly maintaining your cooling system. Don't believe the MB myth that any engine temperatures up to 250F are ok. Except under extreme circumstances, a properly cooling Sprinter engine will not approach 250F, and certainly you should not be seeing over 235F regularly.

Very few Sprinter engines have been ruined by extended OCI. Many more have been undone by poor cooling.

vic

Aqua Puttana said:

My recommendation to those who want to spend money and obsess about all things Sprinter. Put your concerns and spare money into properly maintaining your cooling system. Don't believe the MB myth that any engine temperatures up to 250F are ok. Except under extreme circumstances, a properly cooling Sprinter engine will not approach 250F, and certainly you should not be seeing over 235F regularly.

Very few Sprinter engines have been ruined by extended OCI. Many more have been undone by poor cooling.

vic

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Agreed. 250F is acceptable only in the most extreme of conditions at max load. Anything other than that means cooling system breakdown or degradation.

gilee said:

Hi guys,
Quick questions, I know oil change is every 10,000 miles, but I wonder if I change the oil filter every 5,000miles, will it make a difference or better?

Click to expand...

Largely agree with other posters - assuming no engine mechanical problems, the reason to routinely change oil is 1) loss of viscosity, 2) loss of oil additives' ability to counteract acids (TBN) 3) contamination with particles smaller than the filter size that could be abrasive or build up and clog small oil passages.

If you do have a mechanical problem and believe you are shedding metal particles into your oil at a rate that would overwhelm your filter before 10K miles then a filter change may be helpful as a short term action. But if you are shedding that much metal, then you have bigger problems than an oil filter could fully address.

I recently removed a oil filter with about 30k miles on it (long story, but I did three oil changes). After cutting the filter apart and examining, the metal build up (169k miles on the engine) was negligible, with about 30 particles the size of a small sand grain.