Prefill oil filters?

[Carmen]

I’ve recently found out that filling new oil filters before installing them is sometimes common practice to some people.

I lube the rubber gasket but never fill the oil filters and I’ve never had trouble. Are you supposed to fill them? Does it really make a difference?

Topic

[exranger06]

I always pre-fill mine. Not absolutely necessary, most oil change shops don’t do it and everyone’s engine seems to last just fine without pre-filling. But, it certainly can’t hurt and will only help, so I do it. Even on filters that mount horizontally, I fill about halfway and don’t spill a drop.

[college man]

It does help with dry start up. On some cars the position
of the filter just dumps the oil out as you try to install
it. If the filter is underneath thats ideal.

[Jeff M.]

It’s a good practice to start doing In my opinion!

[valde]

Normally I don’t prefill course of oil spilling. If I don’t prefill then I remove something to make it not start and use starter to build oil pressure.

[NissanMaxx]

I just lube around the gasket. I was told to never prefill it, but I honestly don’t remember why. I don’t think it would make a difference.

[Bill]

I prefill my own and anything with a turbo. I also prefill 7.3 Lt. Ford diesel filters cuz they are quite large.

[mckrishes]

I was wondering the same thing. I imagine that pre filling the oil filter would make some difference, but is it worth it. Will the practice of pre filling the oil filter add significant engine life? Enough to make it worth doing?

[Brandon K.]

I always prefill mine. I just hate the sound of a dry start. On diesels with the traditional screw on, bottom mount location oil filters, I believe prefilling the oil filter is a must. The HPOP’s on diesels are expensive and are lubed by the oil.

[Lorrin Barth]

I often put some oil in the filter. I figure maybe helps, can’t hurt. So I add oil to full and then the level drops. Do again a couple of more times. Eventually my patience runs out. So, I never have actually completely filled am oil filter.

[mckrishes]

I don’t mind filling it, but my problem is the filter is horizontal and it has a tendency to spill.

[Darren]

I have started doing it. I think it gets to the engine quicker. Not that it probably makes a bit of difference. Also it might stop the need to top up after a little while as the filter is already full of oil.

[John]

I never prefilled my filters. I’ve only lubed the rubber seal. Maybe this is a practice I should try on my next oil change.

[Jamie]

About 50/50. A lot of them are horizontal, and or in horrible places. Engines that use a fairly large filter I try to fill them as much as I can before I risk making a mess. Mind you brake clean takes care of that pretty quickly.

I think in most cases its more important to use a good filter, not the cheap ones. I enforce a strick no “orange” filter rule, in favor of OEM ones.

[David Roddick]

Pre-fill reduces dry start. Therefore it is BEST to do that in ANY car if you can (disclaimer: unless there is some car out there where the owner’s manual tell you don’t do that 🙂 )

[Trent “Teddy” Martin]

The only time you should need to pre fill an oil filter is when you have a completely new/rebuilt engine which is bone dry 😀

[Author]

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