Anyone ever seen this? Oil filter??

:confused: I went to do an oil change on a used honda civic I just bought. The motor was rebuilt about 35,000 miles ago. I drained the pan and when I went to take off the oil filter, there was no oil in it????? And it didn't look like there ever was any oil in it other than a little around the rubber gasket. I have done a ton of oil changes, but I have never seen this. What is the cause, how to fix? Any help would be awesome. :screwy:

Sounds to me like a bypass valve problem. They put a valve in your oiling system that will open and bypass the oil filter if it should clog or become too restrictive for some reason. I'm not familiar with Honda engines, but maybe it got installed backwards or something (in which case I would be wondering why this problem wasn't corrected long before you bought it---35,000 miles ago!) or maybe it just failed in some way. But hey, I AM just guessing here.

Maybe someone else here has a more definitive answer for you.