Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Oil filter confusion

I hate to have two new posts on the board at the same time, but I'm stumped. I have a 95 'tour, Zetec. The owner's manual recommends an FL-200 filter, but when I went to change it, the car had an FL-400S on it. Which is right?

CJB

My '97 owner guide and service manual both list an FL-200 whereas my '98 owner's guide lists an FL-2005 for the I4.

My 97 Escort had the 2.0 SOHC, and it recommended the FL-400S. I know that this Zetec is essentially the same engine. Why does Ford play games with the filters?

CJB

Don't be surprised that several different sizes of filter will fit the same engine. Many engines are shared between car models and sometimes there's plenty of room for a filter and other times there isn't much room at all. So the bases are the same but the body might be longer, short, fatter or skinnier depending on what car/engine combination you have.

Karl

Fitting the Zetec into the ZX2 put the filter directly in the way of the steering tie rod. A skinnier but slightly longer filter was the solution. That same filter is specified even when the Zetec is in a different vehicle for all Zetecs after the ZX2 was introduced.

Be a little careful about what filter you use on a Zetec though. I remember being involved with a siezed engine in a ZX2 that had an oil filter installed by a quick lube shop that was intended for the non Zetec engine. The insurance company for the quick lube shop paid for a new engine.

Even with that said, I regularly use a filter specified for the Festiva (a Motorcraft FL 810) instead of the smaller Motrocraft FL 816 on my 91 Escort GT. I like the larger filter with more filter media. Such swaps need to be done with care though so you don't end up with problems like the ZX2 mentioned above.

Motorcraft lists FL-200.

http://www.motorcraft.com

And yes, be careful w/swapping filters, in general. These discussed here may be interchangable - many filters are. But we run into this all the time at Advance. The old timers hate the new small filters, so they want to put on a larger one...they say if it fits, it's OK. Not OK! It may screw on, but there are differences! Openings may be different, where the gasket seats may be different, & the thread may be metric or standard - sometimes a metric will screw on a standard thread, but it is not identical!!!

BTW, on the subject of oil filters, here's an interesting study - K&N will be added soon:

http://www.dorianyeager.com/oilfilterstudy1.html