Why are the oil filters on the new cars so small? My 2008 Kia Sportage V-6 2.7L oil filter is too small for a V-6 motor.
If it is the correct filter then it is not to small . Don’t you think the people who designed the vehicle would recommend the proper filter?
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No today’s engineers are idiots. Look at all the recalls for faulty ignition switches, airbags, gear selectors, electric power steering boxes etc. etc.
etc…
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In the old days the manufacturer wouldn’t have recalled the cars at all for those things.
If you think you are smarter than the people who designed your car, by all means, install a larger filter.
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What is your intent?
Do you believe you are more qualified to design engine oil filters?
Do you want to hear about a larger oil filter that will fit your vehicle?
db4690
April 21
What is your intent?
Do you believe you are more qualified to design engine oil filters?
Do you want to hear about a larger oil filter that will fit your vehicle?
you have already gotten 10yrs of use out of a kia. consider yourself lucky. hopefully you didnt just buy it and have a loan now. that would be bad
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The size of the filter is determined by the needs of the engine.
However I too have noticed that filters have gotten smaller and smaller over the years. I have a box full of oil filter wrenches, because every time I bought a new car the wrench I had was too big for the new, smaller filter. And it ain’t the engine size, because other than my '64 Fairlane they’ve all been similarly sized 4-bangers.
It might make the OP feel better to realize that modern engines run far, far cleaner than my '64 Fairlane ever dreamed of and that oils have improved as well. The parts of modern engines are far more consistent in their manufacture and fit together far better than they used to, and fuel metering through electronic fuel injectors is far cleaner than it was in the old carbureted engine. Oils have better additives as well.
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The filter is fine. The filter on my son’s '96 Camaro with the 3.8 V-6 is tiny and has been that way since new.
The engine is still fine at a quarter million miles. That seems to be a good example to me.
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Did you buy your Kia when it was new? Maybe the engine grew.
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It’s a compromise between the filtering function, now much space is available, and ease of change-out. Yours may appear to have plenty of space available, but if your car was purchased with a different option package, then that extra space you see might be taken up by that. There’s many different sizes of oil filters available. Folks who experiment with old cars, say to make a hot rod from an 1960’s car, will sometimes choose the oil filter that fits the space available, and if that’s smaller than the filter spec’d for the engine will change it out more often. It’s probably necessary to compare the maximum flow rate specs too when choosing a custom filter.
My own current car has a wee tiny oil filter… and almost 253,000 miles on it. And it still runs great.
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Are you the frugal type? Never mind you drive a KIA. Quit trying to save a buck by washing and reusing the filter. But if you must. Only wash the filter in cold water. Everyone knows hot water will make the filter shrink. 
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Joe_Guy
April 23
Did you buy your Kia when it was new? Maybe the engine grew.
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ok4450
April 22
The filter is fine. The filter on my son’s '96 Camaro with the 3.8 V-6 is tiny and has been that way since new.
The engine is still fine at a quarter million miles. That seems to be a good example to me.
the_same_mountainbike
April 22
The size of the filter is determined by the needs of the engine.
However I too have noticed that filters have gotten smaller and smaller over the years. I have a box full of oil filter wrenches, because every time I bought a new car the wrench I had was too big for the new, smaller filter. And it ain’t the engine size, because other than my '64 Fairlane they’ve all been similarly sized 4-bangers.
It might make the OP feel better to realize that modern engines run far, far cleaner than my '64 Fairlane ever dreamed of and that oils have improved as well. The parts of modern engines are far more consistent in their manufacture and fit together far better than they used to, and fuel metering through electronic fuel injectors is far cleaner than it was in the old carbureted engine. Oils have better additives as well.
So what cars by what manufacturers do you know of that is having these major engine failures that must be happening if these filters are too small?
Filters are smaller, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t doing a good job. Years ago with carbureted engines there was much more combustion by-product that had to be filtered out. Engines run much more efficiently these days. Engine oil is much better. And engines last MUCH longer. So your theory doesn’t hold up to observational science.
I think your Kia oil filter is just fine. I think back to the days when cars had bypass partial flow oil filters. The engineers who designed the partial flow system followed the words of Abraham Lincoln: “You can filter some of the oil all the time; you can filter all of the oil some of the time, but you can’t filter all of the oil all the time”.
Your Kia has a full flow oil filter, that despite its size, filters all the oil all the time. Think about it like this:. Harry S Truman was small but he did the job. Your oil filter, like old Harry, though small is capable of doing the job.
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Or his engine absorbed water and swelled.