or maybe I should ask which one is the BEST?


also, do places such as pepboys and autozone sell the crush washer?

 

I go stock, on the advice of the best rotary mechanic in town. If not stock, I would go with an AMSOIL or Mobil-1 filter. Both are highly rated.

 

Stock as well

 

Stock for me too (even though it is a little smaller than the one from the factory). Of course, I've only done one change so far, at 1500 miles. Planning on doing it again at 5K, and every 5K after that. On my other vehicles, I stick with Purolator or Motorcraft.

One more question for the DIYers... I noticed that when I changed the oil that there was a bit of air bubbling/gurgling as I removed the filter (as the rubber gasket released from the sealing surface). I also noticed that I spilled about a tablespoon or so of oil from the filter. So, the question is: If I remove the filter very slowly to let the air enter the filter, will this help to drain the filter more effectively and give less spillage? If so, will poking a small hole in the top of the filter with an awl prior to removal result in the same draining effect?

Just trying to minimize the amount of spilled oil to clean up.

 

I've been using the Bosch 3300. My local Autozone only carries Fram (sucks), Motorcraft, Mobil1, Bosch, and a few AC Delco.

 

There had been some debate over hole-punching a while back. Here is one thread that touched on it, but I know there was some more discussion in other threads. Here are the results I got when I searched for the keywords 'oil' and 'nail'.