fram filters...opinions...

[silicon]

I have always considered Fram filters, air an oil, to be the best. But recently, from an article i read, this may not be the case as they source the manufacture of them to various places and not with the same quality. What is everyone using on their vehicles? :|

 

[John68040]

Wix is one of the best. If you have a Ford, Motorcraft is the same quality but way cheaper. For a cheap filter, Purolator is decent.

Lower end Fram oil filters along with STP and some others use PAPER end pieces inside to hold the element together where quality filters use metal. There have been a lot of cases of this breaking down in Fram filters and clogging oil passages in the engine, thus destroying your motor from oil starvation. From what I recall it usually happens a little after when you should have changed your oil. Fram filters are called the "orange can of death" for a reason - I will NEVER put them on anything.

Their air filters are alright. Not the same potential for harm there.

 

[skyking]

Never for me. Here is one $5000 anecdotal story for you. My friend had overhauled a 6BT cummins, and within the first hour the engine had a destroyed cylinder. We tore it down and traced back the cause. The bypass rubber seal had broken, sending a chunk of rubber down the oil galley to the end. That end was supplying oil to the cooling jet that sprays up onto the bottom of #6 piston. Without it the engine had no chance.
Fram payed him a settlement, I don't know the details of it.

There are more stories out there.
For the diesels I use wix or napa gold, which is wix. I trust napa gold on any
installation.

 

[salvorhardin]

For air and cabin I use wix filters. For oil filters I normally use oem filters since my local dealers have them for about a dollar more than fram. I used to use fram filters but when I saw that I could get oem filters for less than a dollar more, then why risk it.

 

[eng2d2]

Lots of old school classic car owners uses them. Even I am surprise at old schoolers with all the research out there. One even told me that he has been using it for 40 years without issue. So your call

 

[BUTCH1]

With better choices only costing $1-3 more why would anyone take a chance on Fram crap?, I use Pure-o-lator, they run around $3.75 @ Wal-mart. BTW I did a change with oil and filter bought at Advance and was in a Wal-mart a few days later and for shits and giggles walked over to Automotive and found the oil @ $1.50/Qrt less

 

[pauldun170]

I have always considered Fram filters, air an oil, to be the best. But recently, from an article i read, this may not be the case as they source the manufacture of them to various places and not with the same quality. What is everyone using on their vehicles? :|

For general road use, Fram is fine.
They do have specific models that aren't exactly regarded as great but the everyday ones they sell are fine.

 

[Meghan54]

Some Fram are decent, some good, some crappy. All about the filtering efficiency and holding capacity of the filter, something the plain Jane Fram oil filters are severely lacking in. Now Fram's new Ultra Guard filters, they appear to be the equal to K&N, Mobil 1, and other comparable filters. Very good filtration efficiency and very good dirt/crap holding capacity.

 

[jlee]

I used Wix (Napa Gold) or Toyota OEM.

 

[slag]

I used Wix (Napa Gold) or Toyota OEM.

yep, wix only for me.

 

[bryanl]

According to actual performance tests or just filter porn?

 

[CurrentlyPissed]

Most of your oil filters are produced in the same factory, minus the casing.

Fram filter gets the biggest negative pr because they are also by far the most used. Fram makes most of your OEM, and parts specials (parts master, milegaurd, etc), etc as well. Only ones that are not in the same batch are K&N, Valvoline, Wix, and a very few others.

 

[Raizinman]

Why isn’t there an absolute test, to test an air filters efficiency? Well, there is. It is called the ISO 5011 test. If you want to test your Purolator, Baldwin, AC, K&N, or AMSOIL air filters it will cost you about $1700 per filter, to send them in and have them tested. For that price you would have real data about your filter. These ISO 5011 machines cost upwards near $300,000.00.

The ISO 5011 standard (formerly SAE J726) defines a precise filter test using precision measurements under controlled conditions. Temperature & humidity of the test dust and air used in the test are strictly monitored and controlled. To obtain an accurate measure of filter efficiency, it’s very critical to know exactly the amount and size of test dust being fed into the filter during the test. By following the ISO 5011 standards, a filter tested in England can be directly compared to another filter tested in California. The ISO 5011 filter data for each filter is contained in two test reports. Capacity Efficiency and flow restriction.

Without boring you about how the test works, suffice to say they add a controlled amount of dirt to the filter while monitoring its flow capacity. They also monitor the amount of dirt passing through the filter.

Your engine needs filtered air with as little restriction as possible. That’s a difficult balance to obtain as all air filters start to restrict air flow the more they accumulate dirt. If you check the Internet, you will find which air filters have been tested and what the results are; and just so you know, the K&N air filter proved to be one of the worst. Similar type tests for oil filters too.

 

[Blain]

What is everyone using on their vehicles?

Mobil 1 oil filters only

 

[BW86]

What is everyone using on their vehicles? :|

Mann Filters

 

[nerp]

I'd steer clear of Fram. Their average filter is not up to snuff compared to other brands like Wix which use higher quality components.

 

[Raizinman]

Wow, look at the myths and rumors about oil filters which still exist today. I'm sure glad we got the guy whose engine was ruined too. I suppose the picture was verification.

 

[sze5003]

I've used Fram on my motorcycle before and have not had any issues. Although it gets dirtier than the stock filter I've had on there. It seems those are the ones that are always in stock at the local store. But for my car I just bought a Purolater engine air filter because the Fram model was not available. You can probably find similar and better models on Amazon for your vehicle.

 

[skyking]

Wow, look at the myths and rumors about oil filters which still exist today. I'm sure glad we got the guy whose engine was ruined too. I suppose the picture was verification.

Not my engine, but my friend's. I took that when we got the head off. If you can see, the #6 shows scoring and the piston was a mess. We dug into the engine, found the chunk of rubber from the filter, took the filter apart and matched it. Fram paid out some money which does speak well for them. That's not to say another filter would not fail. I'm personally not going to chance it.

 

[nerp]

There are a million youtube videos that take apart Fram and other filters. Go see for yourself and decide what you want filtering your engine.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Meh, their build quality in the past has been sketchy so I've just avoided them in general. I guess some of their filters are built fine, others not so much, but I cannot for the life of me remember which ones are good or bad so I just stick with what I know to be half decent.

 

[Ramses]

Something I noticed long ago, is with todays "world economy" or whatever, an oil filter in one box you buy one week, may well not be the same filter you buy in that box next week. This is especially common with low volume (sales) filters. I don't buy Fram either mostly because there are plenty of alternatives and the few worst case examples I've seen were really bad. There are tons in use every day though. Most of my junks euro so it's easy to just buy Mann Mahle or Hengst. I look close at every single filter I take out of a box before it goes on the motor though, because you can't trust jack these days. There have been cases where i was able to buy a cheap brand filter box and it consistantly had a higher end filter in it, but it's not an absolute. Semper Vigilans

 

[motorking]

Hello,
I am the technical director at FRAM. First of all, let me address the failure on here. We did have an issue with a Cummins filter that we addressed immediately when the issue became known. We did buy three engines and changed the design of the filter immediately. No truck owner was out one penny in out of pocket costs. That said, yes, we make oil filters with engineered fiber end caps., So does Filtec (Nissan OE), Mahle (Bentley OE) and others. We have been OE on Honda for 13 years and Subaru for 6 years with this style of filter and never have had an issue with it. We make four styles of filters with the least expensive being the Orange can that is 95.7% efficiency@20 microns, the Tough Guard and Ultra filters at 99%@20 microns. Nothing WIX makes is better than 85% efficiency at 20 microns, just ask them. Additionally, many brands mentioned in this thread as being "good filters" are designed and built by FRAM filtration. We are OE on Ford, GM, Honda and Subaru. WIX is OE on nothing. All FRAM filters always meet or exceed OE specifications, that is our design mandate. I am more than happy to answer any filtration question by contacting me at jay.buckley@framgrp.com

 

[Denly]

I use Fram, Mann, WIX, Denso, Bosch and others. I have no issues with Fram except for 1.8T their filter is physically smaller than others. And usually Fram cost the most.

While we're talking about filters, is it true that filter model don't matter as long as the diameter of the seal ring match? I know a lot of shop simply pick whatever they have on the shelf with matching ring size and similar capacity.

 

[Jimzz]

^

No the pressure valve inside can be different. So not only does it need to thread onto the car, seal properly, but also the cans can have internal pressure for the bypass that needs to match.

Wix list the pressure at their site along with the thread of the can/car.