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Fram filter quality slipping!!

5

55 50 Ron

Well-known Member
Changed oil in my van today and was surprised at what I saw when I opened the new filter box. The filter on the right in the picture is the latest one I've bought. Note how thin the threaded area is as compared to the one on the left. The merchant is going to get a talk from me. Probably not the mrechant's fault, but I'm not going to buy any more Frams. The filter metal outside the threaded area looked a little thinner too. It said on the box "Made In USA", but it looks more like "Made In China".

I usually buy two filters at a time (have 2 vans) and the boxes looked exactly the same and the filters are labeled the same.
a56607.jpg
 
Fram filter's quality went south a few years ago. I stopped buying them and changed out some that werent due for a change.
Just google "problems with fram oil filters" and you should be able to see what I saw a few years ago.
From your post, I agree, it looks like they have slipped further.
 
Ha! Did you think that Fram made a quality filter?
If you search the net there is a guy that ran his own oil filter study in his garage, Fram ranks just about dead last, and this study was done in 1999. The best filters are the Mobil one brand and the Wix. (they could all be junk by now) But he tested the filters for the following:
1. Hydrostatic burst pressure.
2. Leak back of check valve
3. paper element quality, (how much does the element wear down over time/temp. And many other attributes that are important, shell thickness, backplate thickness, gasket quality, etc.
This guy had plenty of time on his hands and money. He bought every type of filter imaginable. And he tested all of them. He used a lathe to cut open the filters and do all analysis. I even printed out the study and I have it on hard copy, 22 pages. The authors name is Russ W. Knize. The report is quite indepth for a guy in his garage that is doing this on his own without a corporate sponsor, like Ford Motor company or Consumer reports.
If you really think about it the car makers are trusting their engine warranties to a $5 filter that is poorly made and "could" wreck an engine or engines and the warranty costs would be horrendous.
I would love to get sponsored by a company to do all the tests this guy did and issue a long test report with data. I could do all the testing for under $10k worth of equipment.
 
Fram never was a quality filter. About twenty years ago I saw a display at a CaseIH dealer that had cut-aways of several different makes of oil filters - CaseIH, Wix, NAPA, Fram, etc. Of course the CaseIH filter looked the most immpressive as a quality filter, but I also remember what a piece of junk the Fram filter looked like. Filter media with few pleats, cheap spring, etc. When I would tell other people about the display, they would ask what about all those TV ads Fram used to run? (you can pay me now, or you can pay me later) It was all just hype to sell a piece of junk that I would never put on any engine I cared about.
 
If you ever seen the inside of a new Fram compared to anything else you would never buy another one. I won't even use it if you gave it to me for free. Even the silver line wix filters are a lot better.
 
I quit using Fram years ago after reading the test result The non-skid on the outsideis nice but if the inside is junk what good is it? I noticed the tappets quit rattling after startup when I switched to Wix!
 
I live near where they make fram filters.A few years ago a train derailed with one car full of new fram filters going east.Instead of picking them they just dug a big hole with a dozer and burried them.At the time fram said the filters only cost about 20 cents to produce and it was cheaper to bury them than pick them up.
 
About twenty years ago I was servicing the trans on my buick, was a 1977 Lesabre so make it thirty years ago. was that stupid turbo 200, so I changed it every year. Was on a Sunday and the only place open had only Fram filters. so stuck one in there, next year when I changed it the filter pad had fallen out of the frame and was laying in the bottom of the pan!! needles to say that was the first and last Fram filter I had ever used. Use only Wix or NAPA Gold or Carquest which are all Wix.
 
That does look a bit crappy. Thanks for the info. The Mom and Pop auto parts place by me doesn't sell Fram anyway, so have been using Wix for years. Although, my Allis B has a Purolator on it that I bought at the CarQuest regional office/warehouse/store when I was passing through Romeoville, Illinois because they stocked it, so I bought three. Seems to work ok too.

Mark
 
Last FRAM I used the rubber fell off while screwing it on. Used permatex to hold rubber in place. Bad. Dave
 
I didn't know fram made a quality filter!
Fram: "The orange can of doom!"

I cut open a ph373 (tall chevy filter) one time and the end plate was made of some kind of cardboard.
 
When my 07 Chevy 2500 was New, first oil change I got a fram filter & it turned on threads hard, thought threads on truck was bad from factory, but filter threads were bad. took it off & got a AC Delco & fits threads fine. no more frams
 
Found a link to the filter study talked about in the post below for those interested in checking it out for themselves. I haven't taken the time to read it all but what I did read was interesting to say the least.
Filter study
 
So who makes the Case and John Deere filters?

I did find out recently that JD filters have a higher pressure relief.
Mechanic says "that's so the pressure in the system is higher". Seems to me it just means the by-pass opens sooner.
 
I have heard how Fram is junk for years. I still use them on my 1996 Dodge with a 360 gas engine because it is the only filter that when my engine sits the oil pressure builds up fast with. Don't know why, it just does. Tried several other brands and they let the light stay on alot longer about to where it gets the rattles.

Got about 190,000 miles and still going !
 

Whenever there is a discussion about oil filters or oil for that matter there is always a lot of discussion. I thought that I would share this website http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/ T...know about it, but I think it is a good site.
 
if you're changing your oil on a regular basis you're better off quality and price wise to get a NAPA silver. Usually $3 for my cars. frams at wallyworld are $3.50ish. Napa filters are made by wix.
 
I can't find anything that makes me think NAPA owns Wix. Wix and Dana merged years ago but Wix makes filters for a lot of companies.

Rick
 
Like I said in my previous post, there isn't much media in a Fram filter, so it flows faster through the filter without much filtering action. When changing an oil filter, if possible depending on the filter position, pre-fill the filter with new oil before screwing it on. This will reduce the time the engine is running without oil flow.
 
Ron I had a tire shop for 20+ years. We changed oil too. We used a lot of filters. Napa were heaver than the same Fram Filter. The only problem we had was the NAPA gasket liked to stick to the block. Only used fram if nothing else was in stock.
 
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