The flaw here isn’t on the part of Amsoil. Not knowing all the details, but if the Dealership said they thought antifreeze got into the oil, this wouldn’t be a flaw in the Amsoil product or Filter. Apparently from the oil analysis results, the oil was still good and not showing any type of contamination. As for the filter being to blame, this same filter is being used in many other applications using the extended use recommendations without any problems. Also not all the Vibes and vehicles using this Toyota engine have had issues. The last I heard, it was believed to be something within the programing of the car computer, with not all the computers running the same program causing some to have the problems and others were fine. This again wouldn’t be the fault of the filter and when Amsoil found out about some of these engines having problems, they released the notice to safeguard themselves and owners should they have one of the vehicles that might be prone to the problem. I’m guessing they may have gotten some calls from other concerned owners, so my best suggestion would be to contact Amsoil directly and see what their stance would be and what steps they might recommend.

Sorry I didn’t see your comment in my blog until today. For some reason I get sent notices of spam attempts that have been blocked, but not real messages needing me to look at and approve.

Sorry to hear about the problem with your Vibe. In defense of Amsoil, the filter is working fine, it appears to be a problem with these engines from the manufacturer, and from what I understand it has something to do with a setting in the computer that is causing the sludge buildup to develop. There have been some of these cars with no problems at all, but others do have this buildup. Once Amsoil found out about it, they sent the notices out to safegaurd themselves and customers who might have one of these engines that may be affected. I personally have run my Mustang 30,000 miles on the same oil, and my minivan for around 20,0000 with one filter and oil analysis always showed the oil still good for continued use. A friend of mine who is really lazy when it comes to his oil changes has gone at least 2 years on both before deciding to get more from me. I wouldn’t recommend this unless you were doing analysis to make sure the oil is holding up and able to protect the engine, but his car is still running after 10+ years and he runs it hard.

This doesn’t help your situation though, ultimately it sounds like something that would need to be addressed with Toyota, the manufacturer of the engine, although they will probably state that under normal drains this doesn’t happen, which seems to be the case. This just points the finger back to Amsoil.

Without knowing any of the legalities of this, who to blame, and who is ultimately responsible, my first suggested coarse of action would be to contact Amsoil. The main Amsoil number is 715-392-7101. Ask for the Warranty Department and explain what happened. Since initially you were using Amsoil and the filters based on their recommended interval at the time, this would be my first step, and see what they can offer. From there they can probably let you know your next coarse of action, whether it be some documentation from the shop you may have taken your car to, etc. Even with the filter clogged and no longer filtering, it would go into bypass mode allowing the flow of oil to keep going inside your engine. These deposits then, instead of being caught by the filter, may have settled elsewhere causing an oil passage to get blocked up. Your mechanic could probably show proof of that, and if they have a sample of the oil still this could also be tested to determine what exactly was happening within the oil itself. Whatever the case, they could give you advice on what steps you can take to try and solve this problem.

I hope this helps a bit.

Mike

2004 Vibe I bought brand new for $20K and has under 70K… The last oil change I switched from Castrol Syntec and Fram $7 filters to AMSOIL $10/qt and AMSOIL’S $17 Oil filter… Alas. I had about 5K on the AMSOIL oil and filter and experienced sudden and total Engine failure.. It now sounds like a John Deer and barely runs.. sounds like parts are flying all around in the bottom end… Just made the last payment on it… At first I thought it was Toyota junk… now I get the Amsoil notice in the mail ( a bit too late ) that tells me to change my oil at the normal OEM intervals with their expensive oil..
No Thanks.. I’m going back to Castrol Syntec or Mobile 1 and Fram filters… I never had a problem with other oils and cheap filters at 5-7K intervals (changing filter at 3500)