im changing the oil on my car but not the filter, should i unscrew the filter to get out the extra bit of oil that is in it? or will that extra bit of oil not be a big deal?

 

....if ur gunna unsrew the filter anyway y not just put a new one on.... doin an oil change and not changing the filter is like... umm.. changin a babies diaper and not wipin there ***.... its pointless

 

no its not, i have only driven the car 500 miles in the past 4 months so the filter has barely been used, i just want to put so fresh oil in the car

 

How is what's already in there not 'fresh oil'? Seriously if you're that cheap that you can't afford a $3 filter then don't waste the $ on freshening up oil that has been on this earth for a couple million years.

 

fine ill buy a goddamn filter, and isnt the rule of thumb replace every 3 months or 3000 miles, well its been longer then 3 months so its not a "fresh"

 

thats if you're driving it. if its in storage or whatever just crank the engine over a few times every week or so to keep every thing coated well inside. the oil doesn't spoil or break down just sitting there.

 

oh, some guys were telling me that the oil "breaks down" after a while, so i guess ill leave the oil change for another day

 

they only real way to "break oil down" is when heat/ friction is applied. Thus if you have oil sitting around and with the absence of HEAT.... the oil is not going to go anywhere.

 

No, the oil doesn't break down by itself. Otherwise oil bottles would have an expiration date...

The bit about time or distance is really because most wear happens when you first start up. If you had a counter in your car that keeps count of how many times you start the engine, then they could write it like "5000 miles or 300 starts" or whatever.

Nobody has a counter, so the 3-month interval takes care of the people who only ever drive 3 miles at a time. That interval just doesn't work properly for a car in storage. Actually lots of new cars have oil life monitors that count how many times you start the car, what temperatures it runs at, rpm, hours, and miles. They're pretty cool, it's too bad you can't display that information.

Back to the original question. I'd change the filter along with the oil if you've driven a bunch of 3-mile trips. Each time you start it you get wear metals in the oil & other contaminants that would normally burn out with longer trips. Besides, once the paper filter element gets 'wet' with oil, the clock starts ticking on its lifespan...

If the car is in storage, I think the worst thing to do is just turn it over once in a while. Unless you really prepare it for storage, I think it's better to actually drive it 10 miles every few weeks. That way it actually gets to operating temperature. Moisture that's condensing in the crankcase has a chance to dry out, stuff like that.