Just called today to schedule oil change and tire rotation. I would normally do it myself if temperature haven't drop to the 40's. I asked the service writer if they deduct the bill if I bring in my own oil and filter. The answer is yes, they will deduct from the bill and the service writer asked what filter and oil I am going to use. I told him Purolator and Mobil1 syn. He commented that they are both good products, but Toyota filter has 3 layers and will filter better than the Purolator. I know this is dealer talking, so I am not sure the truth to it. Or they are try to squeeze every penny out of you. Anybody want to shine some light on this?
I've seen a display of a cut-out of their three-layer oil filter in the Tustin parts store at the dealership. It's a wavy design that radiates out from the center. As to if this is better than anything else, I don't know.
Lots of posts are out there by myself and others about the quality of filters. Purolator has a very good reputation. Their PureOne filters are excellent. Toyota filters are at least as good. Depending on the actual source of the Toyota filters your dealer has on the shelf, it could be the ones with the different element, or it could be somethign else. No easy way to tell. I wouldn't be afraid to hand the service write a box with your stuff it in and tell them to use it. The worst they can do is say no, and then you take your business elseware. Parts are a high profit area of the dealership and require little labor to make those profits. Depending on parts volume at a dealership it can be run by one or two people and the margins are generally huge. Compared to the service side which requires one tech for every vehicle they want to service at one time. As such the dealership knows that you have purchased a thrid party filter for at least a couple bucks less than they will charge you for a Toyota branded filter, and on top of that their parts department doesn't get the business. Oil changes are lucrative in quantity, but an individual change is pretty low margin. If you bring in all the consumables they will use guess what, they are only makeing money on the labor and that isn't all that much. Most of the profit in an oil change is in the supplies and focuses on the parts department.
How much does your dealer want for the filter? The one I bought from the dealer here was $5.00. Consumer Reports (a long time ago) did an oil filter test and one of the conclusions was that the filters with the car manufacturers name on them were usually the best quality filters you could get.
