Bought an '06 3.0 in December and have it stashed away till spring.
But was checking some things out after reading about concerns about oil filter change and lack of space to do it. Found a Penzoil (made by Fram) PZ173 filter on the car. This filter is about half the size of the Motorcraft FL820S. Bad enough to find a Fram made filter on the car but also concerned about the size of that thing. Anyone else use or see that filter used on the 6?

Also...didn't think changing the filter because of limited space would be an issue on the 3.0. If I was a heart sergon it would help to change the filter on my Miata. Have to take the wheel off reach in and almost no room to hold and take the filter out.

 

Only input i can really tell you is that the oil filter is made for that year and model car. So although it may seem odd it is the correct filter from Pennzoil.

maybe they did it for the reasons you explained, it was smaller and thus easier to change then a larger size filter.