Oil Filter

[Fifty150]

Which filter are you using?  Is everyone sticking with MotorCraft FL-910S?  Is anyone using a higher priced filter like K&N, Wix, Royal Purple, Mobil 1, aFe?  Are there bargain hunters who are buying bulk package, shop grade oil filters?

 

In case anyone is interested, even Amazon has shop grade filters at a very low cost.

 

 

 

I think that shop grade filters are fine.  Thousands are installed, every day, by lube shops across the world.  The lower cost filters are suppose to meet ISO standards.  And if they were so bad, that they are causing engine failure, then at least 1/4 of the cars on the road would be failing on the side of the road.  

 

I get it.  Some of the more expensive filters, are simply better.  Silicone anti-drainback valves.  Thicker wall canister with higher burst strength.  Higher integrity and better designed bypass valve.  Higher strength springs.  Crimped pleats.  Metal end caps.  Synthetic filter media.  More filter media.  More pleats.  Stronger cores.  All of these factors make sense in an application such as a high performance engine.  I'm driving a Transit Connect.  Naturally aspirated.  Low compression.  No turbo.  No supercharger.  No direct injection.  Nothing special.  

 

For me: I do not drive under extreme conditions.  Not racing.  Not towing or hauling heavy loads.  Not driving at wide open throttle. No extended oil change intervals @ 15,000 or 20,000 miles with Mobil1 or Amsoil.  No reason why a lower cost filter will not last for a OEM specified oil change interval.  

Look at the ISO gang.  Don't you trust them to maintain standards?

 

An old school gimmick, which I do fall for, is putting a couple of magnets on the filter.  Don't know if it's actually doing anything.  But I don't think it hurts.  Plus, I already own refrigerator magnets that aren't doing anything else for me except holding up paper menus from Chinese food delivery joints.  Even if you had to go out to buy a magnet, what do they cost?  $0.50? 

 

 

Fifty Cents.  From photos of cut open filters found online, it looks like the magnets attract some of the sludge material, holding along the wall of the canister, which will prevent that sludge material from clogging the filter media.  But I don't know.  I've never cut open any of my own filters.  I'm not spending $75 on a tool to cut open a $2 filter.  Same way I won't spend more on a used oil analysis, than it cost to change the oil.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 4, 2019 by Fifty150