Attention Fram Filter Users

[Skandocious]

Changed the oil in mah lady's car today and had an unpleasant surprise. Last time I changed her oil I wasn't able to get my hands on a quality filter so I bought a Fram filter; figured what could it hurt right? Wrong. Here's what a new Bosch canister filter looks like:

Here's what the Fram looked like when I pulled it out today:

Those crushed fins in the middle crushed themselves during engine operation. I did not crush these when I inserted the filter. I've changed her oil SEVERAL times with Bosch filters and the fins always came out straight as an arrow. This was the first and LAST Fram filter that I'll ever use.

 

[F 150Cobra]

Changed the little lady's oil today and had an unpleasant surprise.

HAHAHAHAH dudeee good that you edith the first part becuase in a dirty mind like tony's they will say something sooo wrong about it!! ghahahaha you know what i mean


how about

Changed the little lady's CAR oil today and had an unpleasant surprise.

sry im a bit drunk!

 

[Skandocious]

Hahaha good idea

 

[Brian_B]

I have not used one in many years. I started running motorcraft when I was 16. I think 2 or 3 times over the years I couldn't get one and used the fram.

I buy several motorcraft FL-1As when I buy stuff now. Between dad and I, we have 4 vehicles that use them.

 

[lenny1carl]

Holy crap! Is that just a regular oil change interval??

 

[BlondeGurli]

yeah. My car tells me the percentage purity of my oil. We change it at 50, which is usually about 3000 miles. Crazy, huh?

 

[lenny1carl]

Yeah It is T....I've never seen a filter collapse like that. I'll never use one again after seenig that

 

[Blue Goose]

At the risk of sounding repetitive, I wouldn't use a Fram filter on my weedeater...

 

[CaFordDude]

Thanks for the reminder guys. I need an oil change today!

 

[smokey]

I'm with Brad I wouldn't run a Fram in anything I have seen them collapse and even the case split on a few.

 

[Truckin4life]

I used a fram when i just rebuilt my motor on my truck, it was on for a whole 45 min, then the oil was drained the filter was taken off and was replaced with motorcraft...

I see stp filters alot around here.
Anybody know how good they are?

 

[john112deere]

I've never had to deal with a cartridge filter, but from the pictures I can pretty well figure out how they work.

Still trying to wrap my head around "those crushed fins in the middle crushed themselves during engine operation", though. Not that I doubt your ability, but it just really looks more like an installation/removal problem more than a defect.

 

[SuperCab]

I actually have a Wal*Mart SuperTech filter on the truck. I've always heard that they're the best there is for the price.

 

[TexasNomad]

What kind of car do you have? or did you cut the filter can open??

 

[Skandocious]

Ian-- the way these filters work on Trista's Cobalt:

Buy that filter cartridge at the store, you unscrew a plastic lid with about a 1.25" plastic hex nut affixed to the top. Remove that plastic lid and the filter element comes with it (attached to the bottom of the lid). Pull the filter element and it'll snap off of the lid, throw out old element. Get new filter element and snap it onto the lid (same lid gets reused), drop the filter element into the oil canister, move it a little bit until you can feel that nipple on the bottom drop into the hole in the bottom of the canister, then screw down with your HAND until you can't screw anymore. I never start tightening anything with a wrench because it's very easy to not know how much pressure you're applying when you've got a lever arm.

Trust me Ian, this was not a user error. I've changed Trista's oil about 4 or 5 times now and I never once had this problem until I tried a Fram filter; there really isn't a lot of room for user error, it's super simple. If I can dissemble the valve bodies on my transmission and install a shift kit, or dissemble and reassemble my tcase without issues, or do a full brake job on my truck and my mom's Lexus, I'm fairly certain that I can change oil without any big hangups

The only other POSSIBLE explanation I can think of, is that the construction of the filter is slightly different (notice the plastic caps at both ends on the Fram filter), and perhaps they didn't manufacture the filter element to spec, and its slightly too long for the canister. If that's the case, I could see how the last couple spins of the cap would crush the fins a little bit because of it being too long.

But I compared the lengths of the two and they were roughly the same-- so I don't think that's the case. I think it's just a cheap/crappy filter.

 

[Bricks]

It definitely looks like the top half turned and the bottom half didn't when it was being put on. Could be like you said - maybe the Fram was just a wee bit longer.

 

[SuperCab]

Edited. Chris got the joke so I'll just leave it at that.

 

[Skandocious]

It definitely looks like the top half turned and the bottom half didn't when it was being put on. Could be like you said - maybe the Fram was just a wee bit longer.

It's quite possible Steve; I've seen similar manufacturing problems with the 6.0L canister filters. Either way, it's the filters fault and not the user. End result-- never using Fram again.

 

[Skandocious]

??????????

Haha I knew that using the word "nipple" was a bad idea. You know it DOES have more than one meaning!!!!

 

[SuperCab]

I know. Just kidding. I'm editing that last post now before pig sees it and puts you in his sig again. don't wanna give him any ideas.