I bought a 2003 Tribute LX, which has the 3.0L V6 engine. When it was time for the first oil change, I bought the filter listed in the auto parts catalog, brought it home, and discovered that it wasn't even close to the right size. I thought perhaps the last person to change it had found a compatible filter, so I opened it up and tried to install it, and found that it would not fit. Back to the store. The guy at the store looked it up in the computer and verified that I had the correct filter listed and tried to cross reference it against the Ford engine, but of course, both the Mazda and Ford filters were the same. We were finally able to cross reference the filter that was on vehicle and found a suitable, though obscure Fram filter that was made for motorcycles, but has the same specs. I can't figure out why the filter wouldn't match, though. Any ideas?

 

Here's is the OE oil filter from MazdaPartsUSA. I hope it works alright.

 

These are equivelant to what fits on my tribute 2005 V6 3.0 liter Australian delivered but made in japan I use a cheaper version which uses the same numbers as the Ryco
Replacement oil filters for RYCO z516:

• AC-Delco AC084
• Baldwin B329
• Bosch 0986AF1172
• Donaldson P550965
• Fleetguard LF3681
• FSA C1908
• OEM FL820
• Purolator L24651
• Sakura C1922
• Wesfil WZ516
• Wix 51372