Don't buy Fram oil filters.

[5speedracer]

 

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[Ian_Fearn]

That’s amazing, when I serviced the transmission on my Jeep, a 545RFE box, all the American forums said don’t under any circumstances buy the Fram filter kit.

Now I know why.....

[Aston Martin]

I used to buy every filter by Bosch. But the Internet told me to buy all Mann.

[Spurious]

I used to buy every filter by Bosch. But the Internet told me to buy all Mann.

Usually buy whatever Euro Shite Parts has on offer... I'll have to watch it more closely now.

[Mrcento]

I tend to use OEM filters. Not because i'm some OEM freak who only fits standard part....far from it, most of the things i fit are aftermarket, but the truth is, i've found there's rarely a big difference in price if you know where to look. They tend to only be £1 or £2 more so aren't really worth skimping on when the potential for expensive damage comes into it.

[5speedracer]

Seem to have landed lucky myself as usually use Wix from the 'bay.

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[1970mgb]

I steer clear of the Fram "orange can of death(OCOD), which is what is shown there.

With that said, people who I know and trust who know filters claim that the Fram Ultra and some other high end Frams are among the best on the market.

Personally, I use Motorcraft(Ford) on almost everything, most of which are made by Purolator and are roughly between their PureOne(mid-line) and Boss(top grade) in quality and for a favorable price.

I like Wix filters, and in fact run the NAPA Platinum(Wix) on my MKZ for 10K miles. With that said, Wix filters have a bad reputation in the MG community for a couple of reasons. For one thing, the ADB valve sits a bit lower than other designs, and occasionally fouls and blocks the the stand pipe for the filter. Secondly, the threads aren't always cut exactly right, and I've known of more than one stripped MGB adapter from trying to thread on a Wix. I've used Motorcraft, Purolator, and even Baldwin with that car with success, but have been scared away from Wix.

[Shep Shepherd]

That hat! ?

I use OEM oil filters exclusively on The Volvo (anti-drain valve as standard) and anything that isn't a Fram filter on The Aero e.g. Halfords, Crosland, Mann, Champion, Bosch et al.

I was told many years ago that Fram filters were bad news, and this video only reinforces this perception.

[Shirley Knott]

I've always used Either OE or Mann filters.

The one time I made an exception to that rule and fitted a Halfords filter to a 1.4 Golf all seemed well until the first cold start during which the top end sounded like a Tommy gun for the first 30 seconds! Changed back to Mann immediately and the problem was fixed straight away so clearly no none return valve in the Halfords jobbie (Or at least the one I had)

 

[Stanky]

Interesting, I was going to buy a Fram filter for the mercedes, I think I'll stump up the extra £2 and get a Mann one instead!

[Split_Pin]

Yikes I'll need to check my cars now!

[sutty2006]

Which ones are the green ones? 

Definately wont be buying fram filters after seeing that video! 

[sutty2006]

11 minutes ago, sutty2006 said:

Which ones are the green ones? 

Definately wont be buying fram filters after seeing that video! 

Crosland, they’re the green ones. Never really had an issue with them, but then again, never really cut them up to check. 

I service my discovery 3 2.7 V6 with Allmakes 4x4 filters. I use which ever 5w30 oil I can get from the shop I buy from. Last year I payed £60 for all the oil and filters, this year £47 for the same only I had one 5L tub of oil instead of two (as the disco takes 6.5L) so had enough to do service with leftover from last year. From what I remember, 5 litres cost £15. And we had a discussion about it saying this oil was good stuff as it passed the screwdriver test..... yeah I didn’t know what that was until explained that dipping a screwdriver in it and seeing how much was left on it by the next day made that clear.

[SiC]

I saw this video a few months back. Like everything on the internet, I had a Google to see the alternative view point. A relatively good one is here:

https://tiremeetsroad.com/2019/01/24/are-fram-oil-filters-any-good/

What summed it up for me was:

Quote

Think about it, if Fram oil filters were as disastrous as people made them out to be, class action lawyers would have a field day with how much money they could make through a class action lawsuit with so many ruined engines. But, Fram still makes oil filters and people are still buying them with no issue.

It's true, these filters come from the land of the lawsuit. Why would a filter manufacturer not go through masses of testing to ensure their filters did the job? Just because a manufacturer has found a unique way of doing the job that others haven't, it doesn't mean they're bad.

Fake news for the most part.

[Jim Bell]

1 minute ago, SiC said:

I saw this video a few months back. Like everything on the internet, I had a Google to see the alternative view point. A relatively good one is here:

https://tiremeetsroad.com/2019/01/24/are-fram-oil-filters-any-good/

What summed it up for me was:

"Think about it, if Fram oil filters were as disastrous as people made them out to be, class action lawyers would have a field day with how much money they could make through a class action lawsuit with so many ruined engines. But, Fram still makes oil filters and people are still buying them with no issue."

 

Cigarettes. 

If you're making more money than you're paying out, you're making money. 

[SiC]

Cigarettes.  If you're making more money than you're paying out, you're making money. 

 

And the tobacco companies have had plenty of lawsuits against them over the years. The only thing they have protecting them is lobbying and managing to get law makers in to protect them over half a century or so. However look at the lawsuits against opiates based painkiller drugs at the moment...

 

What I'd like to see is a review by someone who knew about oil filtration and did tests to measure flow volume, filtration quality, drain back and the like. Not a subjective disassembly done by a metal fabricator who points everything that looks different from the other filters and thus concluding that it must be bad.

 

 

 

[MikeR]

I just change the oil every 6 months , and filter every year ,

its not like I need a fit and forget filter ...

but I do got for the bigger filter on the Focus as opposed to the short one ...

[tommotech]

It has never ceased to amaze me that people will look to save money on filters, where OEM prices are not really expensive. OEMs and dealers know that prices need to be keen and have mostly realigned their pricing on these. 

The genuine alternative for me is to use an OEM supplier, Mann & Hummel or Purflux (as a preference). The Purflux filter medium is pleated to give a greater surface area, these truly are a quality product. 

In my job I have seen the damage that poor filtration and bad quality filters can cause. It’s not necessarily having unfiltered oil that causes immediate damage, this is more long term. If debris gets to things like oil cooling jets then pistons overheat and then seizure occurs. This kind of case is more prevalent than you would believe, definitely not fake news. 

An engine or major repair can cost thousands, a decent quality filter is generally less than a tenner, £7.00 for my Audi. I personally would not risk a cheap alternative. 

I will look for some photos I have somewhere so you can see the effects. 

[spike60]

Over the years and cars I've had 2 problems that I know of, a 1993 BMW 540i  that after service  whenever it was started the oil light went out, came back on then went out again to stay. When I pulled the filter back out the pressure had crushed it, lifting it off the drain valve in the bottom of the bowl meaning oil was continuously  draining from the pressure side back to sump. I drove it to France from the NE like that.... Don't remember the make.

Son's 2006 Astra 1.4 had the oil filter in pieces when I removed it, no idea what make or how long etc. Both were element type rather than screw on.

          

[Tamworthbay]

I use Mann every time, used to use Fram years and years ago as they were supposed to be good but heard bad reports a long time ago - supposedly the name had been bought by someone and they weren’t what they used to be but no idea if that’s true or not.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

I often buy Mann filters - fingers crossed they're nothing like Fram!

[Jim Bell]

3 hours ago, SiC said:

And the tobacco companies have had plenty of lawsuits against them over the years. The only thing they have protecting them is lobbying and managing to get law makers in to protect them over half a century or so. However look at the lawsuits against opiates based painkiller drugs at the moment...

 

 

Indeed. 

And they're all still commercially on sale, even though they are detrimental to health and directly cause death (in the case of cigarettes)

Because: if you're making more money than you're paying out, you're making money. 

 

If there has been a word of mouth shared knowledge that those orange filters are shit, there's probably some truth in that. If there's rust on the inside of a new filter and the end caps fall apart when you touch them, if be giving them a swerve, but I'm definitely not an engineer or anything. 

[sutty2006]

At the end of the day, if an engine fails due to oil or component wear/failure, who blames the oil filter? You’ll probably never know if it was the filter at fault. 

[Jim Bell]

17 minutes ago, sutty2006 said:

At the end of the day, if an engine fails due to oil or component wear/failure, who blames the oil filter? You’ll probably never know if it was the filter at fault. 

Indeed. 

Imagine trying to prove it, legally. 

[vaughant]

They must be cheap shit, Honda use them in all our internal equipment but I don't think they use them in their cars because Honda don't give a fuck about the machines that make the cars but they do care about the cars themselves!!! 

[Richard]

Crosland are also shit. I used one on the Volvo when I couldn't get a Mann filter. The oil light took a few seconds to go out, coupled with the usual worrying noises until it did. Years ago I always used Crosland because it was what my local motor factor sold and the same thing used to happen, which I put down to the engine being tired. It stopped happening when I started buying better cars, but I also changed my regular motor factor around that time.

When I got my Escort I did a service and was struck by how much better the outgoing Motorcraft fuel filter looked than the pattern one I was putting in. The Motorcraft one was wound like a toilet roll, while the pattern one was the usual concertina type. I resolved to bite the bullet and buy genuine next time and discovered that the Ford service parts were much the same price as the motor factor ones, the oil was actually much cheaper. After that I decided to be a bit more discerning in my choice of car parts.

 

 

[Kiltox]

11 minutes ago, Richard said:

Crosland are also shit. I used one on the Volvo when I couldn't get a Mann filter. The oil light took a few seconds to go out, coupled with the usual worrying noises until it did. Years ago I always used Crosland because it was what my local motor factor sold and the same thing used to happen, which I put down to the engine being tired. It stopped happening when I started buying better cars, but I also changed my regular motor factor around that time.

When I got my Escort I did a service and was struck by how much better the outgoing Motorcraft fuel filter looked than the pattern one I was putting in. The Motorcraft one was wound like a toilet roll, while the pattern one was the usual concertina type. I resolved to bite the bullet and buy genuine next time and discovered that the Ford service parts were much the same price as the motor factor ones, the oil was actually much cheaper. After that I decided to be a bit more discerning in my choice of car parts.

 

 

Crosland is just a label ECP put on some imported shit - completely unrelated to any brand of old. Think clothing brands at Sports Direct. 
 

[Timewaster]

We used to knock out hundreds of unbranded filters that cost a quid. 

It was usually the same customer that bought reclaimed 20/50 for their ohc Cavalier and wondered why it was scrap before the next MOT.

[sierraman]

Ford genuine filters are something like £6 delivered. Don’t know why you’d fit Crossland or Fram. 

[steveo3002]

not much reason to not buy genuine main dealer or mann filters , aint much in it if you shop around