Everyone seems to be going "green" lately. Many people feel that to truly be good to the earth means completely giving up your car. If you are not ready for such a drastic step, there are modifications you can make to ensure that your vehicle is more environmentally-friendly. One way to do this is to replace your car’s regular oil filter with a reusable one. While these filters require a bit more effort to keep clean, you most likely will feel it is completely worth it.
Use a floor jack and jack stands to raise your car so that you have access to the undercarriage and the reusable oil filter.
Place an oil drain pan beneath the reusable filter in case a little trapped oil leaks.
Unscrew the bolt holding the reusable oil filter in place by turning it counterclockwise. Use a multi-purpose wrench without threads to start if the bolt is too tight to loosen by hand.
Gently lower the reusable filter and open the access area. Slide out the wire cloth filter.
Place the wire cloth filter in your automobile parts washer and choose a lower setting to wash it. Alternately, if you do not have a parts washer, you can rinse the filter with fresh brake cleaner.
Allow the clean wire cloth filter to air dry completely. Reinsert the wire cloth filter into the reusable oil filter case and close the access area securely.
Set the entire filter assembly into place and tighten the bolt back into place by turning it clockwise by hand. Use the non-threaded wrench to make one final half-turn by hand.
Lower your vehicle and dispose properly of any oil drippings in the drain pan.
