Hi CL,

Wanted to get peoples opinion on this adapter and the reasoning behind dry starts. According to Baxter Performance they sell this spin on oil filter adapter because the cartridge filter is not a good design and every time you start the car it has a dry start and with time it can damage the engine. My 2019 GS350 has the cartridge style filter and I am concerned about this.
Any one here has changed to the baxter adapter?
Are these GSs with the cartridge designed the correct way so we don't have these dry starts?
I am on the fence to buy it but I am not sure if it is really necessary.
Any info and help on this is greatly appreciated.
Thanks

 

Baxter Performance vs Toyota/Lexus(that has used this design for many years with engines running 300k+ miles)

Baxter Performance will tell you anything to sell you something that you don't need. $270 for this adapter is a waste of money.

 

The pick up that's the Slump is in the Oil pan that's filled with Oil, unless I am missing something on the 2GR.

 

Hit the nail on the head there, nice and square. No need for this, what so ever.

 

I hate the cannister oil filter assembly. But that's because it's messy and are sometimes waaaay over tightened, especially the composite ones.
But they are perfectly fine oil filters. I also like the cheap price of the filter elements from the dealership.

For $30 I am a Baxter adapter customer. But $270? Forget that noise.

 

Trust the oil system your car came with. Same with other brands of cars as well such as:

Kia
Ferrari
Ford
Peugeot
Mazda

Whether the car cost $1 or $1B dollars, they all hire engineers to design cars.

Generally: men get bored, know how to armorall their tires and maybe swap lug nuts and suddenly think they've finally acquired enough knowledge to play engineer and "upgrade" their cars with something they found on a website.

The beauty is salaried engineers did all the work and thinking for you when they designed the car. The entire point of buying a car, so you don't have to make one yourself. that is why they went to school. Not to say mods don't have their place, but this isn't one of them. Also part of the cost you paid for when you bought the car is the cost of people designing them. why pay twice?

The best way to enjoy your car is just drive it. =)

 

Is Baxter Performance run by Germans? Those people are good at over engineering, creating new points of failure that didn't exist before

 

Seeing it from both sides (I've worked for a German machine manufacturer), while it may seem that MANY parts are over engineered... they are not engineered to last forever, they are made to be a balance of machine performance and efficiency. There are many parts designed to break (so more expensive ones so not), but the money is not made in the cars... It's made in spare parts... always.

I would not put it past the Japanese engineers to calculate how many times you could "dry start" and reach around 300kmi, while assuming that you drive it nearly daily/Never let it sit for like a month.

There is plenty of oil film to protect the mains and wrist pins of most engines after being off for a couple weeks. I leave my truck sitting for months due to traveling or just not driving it and after 40kmi of doing that it's still just fine.... because I have gigantic bearings and it's engineered to do such.

If you daily drive and don't let it sit longer than a few weeks like 12x in a year I wouldn't waste your money. If you're that concerned then put like a pint of Lucas in it (not a quart... because you risk the oil foaming).

 

The truth.

 

Thanks to all for the replies

 

So... they advertise this product because most oil cartridge systems do not have anti-drain back valves... but then our cartridge filters actually sit below the oil pan which means this doesn't even matter. There is nowhere for that oil to drain back to. Maybe it makes sense for those oil systems that have the filter on top of the engine.

 

its not going to add 25 BHP like that TRD racing sticker does or give you the street cred of a slammed stance like chopping your springs will. Toyota engineers are VERY good at what they do and the factory oil filter set up is perfectly fine and I've no doubt will give you zero problems for the life of the car, providing you regularly change the filter. It's the guy at the oil change place thats down in the pit making just over minimum wage that doesnt give 2 s#!ts about anything other than getting your car gone, so he/she can hit their THC vape pen again, that over tightens the plastic filter housing and cracks it and 2-3 days later the low oil pressure light comes on and youre screwed. yes the adapter is not cheap, yes, the spin on filter costs more. but they're an investment in your vehicle to help ease maintenance (they're quicker to change and less messy than cartridge filters, if you do your own changes) and the 15 bucks more for a quality spin on once or twice a year is not that much. if you have your oil changes done there is no price difference for the filters. if you're willing to spend the money for an oil change by taking it to a lexus/toyota dealer you probably have little to worry about in the cracked filter housing department but if you take it to places like Take 5, or some other Quick change place, you're taking your chances. in the end it's something you will have to decide for your self if its worth the money.

 

My other GS has the filter above the oil line and I won't use any filter that doesn't have an anti-drain back seal on it. It is very apparent if you put something like a FRAM on it that doesn't have a seal. The valve train will clatter until the oil pressure builds.

When the Lexus GS filter is removed, there is oil in it. If it were draining back, it wouldn't make much of a mess.

 

I will completely trust factory engineers who spent years of testing and coming up with something that helps engine last. I also used to like older Toyota Canister style filters as they were less messy but with right tools and allowing that port to drain oil out of oil filter housing helps making it less messy. Some folks avoid putting that white plastic thingy in through that port and just remove the whole housing which often spills oil at places.

I will only used such aftermarket adapters in cars where the oil filter is in PITA location. I had a miata back in 2002 and that car had a very weird location for oil filter and we had to remove stuff to to get to it. Back then I had bought $60 kit to relocate the oil filter to very accessible location.

 

Toyota filter for mine and nothing else.