So what's wrong with the Airhog filters? was:Re: Airhog filters almost free after Fram's rebate

Well, the one time That happened to me with a Fram, I cut the filter open and found the pressure was low because the filter had collapsed internally.

But most people (including me) do NOT have problems with "low oil pressure" whn using frams. What we've had problems with is NO oil pressure on start-up because the anti-drainback valve didn't work, and allowed the filter to fill with air overnight, so that the pump has to run for several seconds to blow the air out (through the bearings, I might add, which disrupts the oil film already present on the bearings) before pressure will build.

And if you think (as you imply) that other brands leave a lot of junk in the engine that the Fram mysteriously is able to remove (despite having less surface area and a filter media with the same pore size) then I challenge YOU to cut one open and prove to me that it is indeed "heavy" because it has trapped a lot of stuff out of the engine. I also find that hard to believe because none of my engines have ever shown any sign of any sort of internal deposits when I've pulled oil pans or valve covers to replace gaskets.

Reply to
Steve
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Fortunately for the rest of the world, LOTS of people DO know that the anti-drainback and bypass valves are two separate mechanisms.

Reply to
Steve

Steve wrote: \

The problem is that there is no evidence that any of the automobiles built in the last 10-15 years has suffered any engine damage at all when using Fram filters. If the engine damage you are claiming actually happened and if the customer used a fram filter, don't you think that manufacturers would void some of the high mileage extended warranties they give nowadays? There is no reason to believe your car or engine's life span will be reduced any at all if you use a fram filter. If you can show me an engine manufacturer that is concerned about the engine damage that you are concerned about, I might take you seriously. They would have millions in warranty claims to worry about if any of your claims were really valid. Considering the enormous number of engines worth literally billions of dollars that are driving on the roads with fram filters installed, don't you think some enterprising lawyer would immediately see the opportunity to line their pockets with millions if they could bring a class action suit on behalf of all these engines that are being ruined as you claim? The fact is no such evidence of damage exists at all. All we have is some scattered anecdotes from a few people. And the thing that I find curious is that the overwhelming majority of these anecdotes of catastrophic failure due to fram filters seems to be engines that are 20 years old or more. Assuming these stories are true it does give you cause to wonder. If filters are collapsing when installed in old cars but not in new ones you have to wonder why. If it happened with new cars with any more frequency with Fram filters than any other filter you know some lawyer would stop chasing ambulances and start chasing wreckers for a living.

If you look at the studies done by independent laboratories on the different capabilities of filter media used in oil filters of different brands, you will see that fram filters rate near the top for removal of the tiniest particles. Some of the filters that have been touted here as being better than fram rate near the bottom in the same test. Now that doesn't mean a fram filter is better since if you change the oil often enough all the particles will stay in the oil and go with the oil change. Also, these tests tend to be a statistical process of how many particles are removed in one pass thru the filter. Since the oil passes thru the filter numerous times those tests mean very little in terms of long term performance except in the rare event of when the filters is confronted with enormous numbers of those particles all at once.

If it were possible to cut one or even many filters open and prove something definitive you would be in a position to make a lot of money if you hook up with the right lawyer.

Iron is about 10 times heavier than motor oil. Babbit metal is about the same density and aluminum is 4 times heavier than oil. Carbon is 3 times heavier than motor oil. If you take a filter off and turn it over and shake it vigorously and only a little oil oozes out and the filter remains unusually heavy you don't have to cut it open to know what's inside there. At any rate I'm pretty sure I no longer have the old filter so I won't be cutting it open.

-jim

Reply to
jim

"Dry starting" caused by bad ADBVs in Fram filters is a cumulative sort of damage. Doing it for one oil change interval isn't going to cause the engine to fail. Doing it for the LIFE of an engine can certainly reduce engine life.

Not my problem. Warranties are all numbers games, anyway. Any manufacturer who offers a warranty knows that some warranty claims will be a legit defect, some will be owner-induced, and some may be related to ancillary parts. So long as the number of owner-induced and ancillary part-induced failures stay below a dull background noise, the manufacturer won't do anything about it. If it gets to be a big problem, or if a service tech at a dealer can find hard evidence that something else caused the failure, then sure- the warranty will not be honored.

Maybe not enough reason for YOU. There's enough for ME, and I'm the one that has a 460,000 mile car, a 287,000 mile car, and a 244,000 mile car in the family.

Of course not- EVERYONE except you knows its just oil-soaked filter media. The amount of actual wear metal shed over the whole LIFE of a normal engine is only measured in the milligram to gram range, let alone the tiny amount shed during a single oil change! If your oil filter EVER contains enough wear metal that you can "feel" the difference by hefting the filter in your hand, then you've got WAY bigger problems than a mediocre filter!

Reply to
Steve

I give you two oil filters filled with oil. One of them has a metric M6x20 bolt dropped into it. The other doesn't. Tell me, which one does by feeling the weight. You can't, because even something as big as an M6x20 bolt weighs too little compared to the filter and oil.

Motor oil is mostly carbon by weight. But what form of carbon are you comparing? diamonds? the burnt crusties scraped from a piece of toast?

If you just turn it over and leave it, a fair amount will come out. Surface tension holds the rest. Filter media has a lot of surface area.

Reply to
Brent P

BULLSHIT.

Why does Cummins specifically state that they will not warranty an engine if a fram filter is used? (not sure if that is currently the case but it was a couple years ago)

BULLSHIT. Running with no oil pressure is damaging, and if you try to claim otherwise then you just sound like an idiot.

Cummins doesn't count?

Indeed.

Wrong, wrong, brimming over with wrongability.

Wrong.

I'm not saying they collapse. I'm saying the ADBV's are garbage, and secondarily, the cans have been known to blow apart on a cold start when oil pressures are high.

And that doesn't mean jack shit when you have no oil pressure! I don't give a f*ck how clean the oil is, if it's not under pressure and in your bearings, your engine HAS NO PROTECTION.

Why not? afraid that you might be COMPLETELY WRONG on all your assertions? I don't doubt that you drive some POS sludgemonster, but the fact remains that Fram ADBVs are crap, and you couldn't pay me enough to put one on my car.

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

If that were true I'm sure some one would produce a reference. But instead all we have is silly little anecdotes and mysticism. There are a lot of fram filters used in airplane engines and the National Transportation Safety Board and FAA do cut filters apart and study them. Every occurrence of an in air engine failure is investigated thoroughly so you would think that if the problem were real it would be known somewhere other than just as urban legend on the internet. And most of the perpetrators of these legends wouldn't get within ten feet of a fram filter so that tells me they don't know squat about how they actually perform in reality.

You claim over and over that there is evidence and yet you produce none. A blog on the internet is not evidence. I'll admit I'm wrong if you can show some believable evidence. But the only thing I've ever seen is private individuals opinions. That makes me extremely suspicious. As I said before if there was truth to this it wouldn't be that hard to prove and some lawyer would be raking in millions in class action damage suit.

-jim

Reply to
jim

Are your googling fingers broken?

here's one Fram issue:

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here's a thread about the Cummins issue:

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I don't have the TSB number handy because I don't own a Cummins so don't really care that much.

There's plenty more info to be found, heck, just off the top of my head I've heard of Frams in motorcycles with common sumps and wet clutches having clutch slip problems traced to filter media making its way to the clutch, and Frams in VWs that are raced exploding when engines are revved too high from a cold start causing oil pressure spikes. But really, just not having an ADBV that works is enough for me. Everyone else's seems to work OK, just not Fram. Face it, all the bad stories you hear about oil filters, 99% of the time they are about Frams.

But what if an engine doesn't fail catastrophically but just wears out prematurely? You KNOW that running with no oil pressure causes wear, unless you're an idiot.

I know they don't work correctly. I've held at least three defective Fram filters in my own hands. That's about 100% of the Frams that I've had on cars that I owned or was working on. I've never had any other brand of filter fail to my knowledge.

My personal experience says that Frams don't work correctly. If I can't trust my own senses, I can't trust anything. That's what groups like this are all about, so people can compare notes and see what works and what doesn't. For some reason you seem to have a problem with that, and what's worse, seem unwilling to learn from the experience of others.

So keep using your shitty orange cans, what do I care? Just don't try to sell me shit and call it shinola, I can tell the difference. And don't try to sell me a used car, either, because if I see an orange can on the engine you're going to have a hard time convincing me that it's been properly maintained.

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

At the end of the day, personal experiences and opinions are the basis of buyers choices. Fram has some work to do, whatever the quality.

Reply to
hls

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