legacycentral bbs

Upon inspection of my recently bought '92 L Wagon 2.2 5MT AWD, I notice that the oil filter has not only the Purolator logo but also the inscriptions "Fuji Heavy Industries" (Subaru's parent company).
I assume that means the part is OEM and, as far as I know, you can only get OEM parts at a Subaru dealer (correct me if I am wrong).
For a car with 122K miles, that may be either good news (the previous owner had the vehicle serviced at authorized dealers) or bad news (the oil filter not been changed in quite a while).
Obviously, I've checked the oil level and viscosity (they are fine) and there are no leaks.
I just wonder if it is possible to tell how old an oil filter is (by the serial number or any other way).


Louie

is the bottom part of the filter still flat or is it round/pushed out? If it's pushed out it's hella old. How's the oil look? Can you contact the seller and find out? you ought to go ahead and go an oil/filter change anway. Can't hurt anyhting but your wallet

cut it open and see how much particulate has been filtered out. I imagine that if it was teh orig there'd be some nastiness inside.

MK

It's probably just a filter bought from the dealer. I wouldn't let the fact that it's an OEM filter worry you. Of course, any time you buy a used car without service records I say it's a good idea to chance as many fluids and filters as you have the money for.