Who was it who mentioned Fram oil filters and dropping oil pressure? (2025 Update)

About 4 years ago, just before I got rid of our 1988 3.0 liter New Yorker it got a Fram filter installed - and the lifters clattered on startup - about 30 seconds on a warm day, up to 90 seconds on a cooler day. oil pressure took longer to come up. I didn't leave it on for the full 5000Km - changed it to a Wix manufactured Napa filter and the clatter went away - immediately.

Not true. Some depend on the bypass valve on the car. Carvair was a case in point. Filter bypass is in the filter base.

You got that right!

meanwhile Wix, Purolator, and Champion Labs have NEVER had a bad run significant enough to register on our collective radar screens. 'nuff said.

nate

Oh, yeah. You're Canadian eh. Did you once say you're near Kitchener?

Most filters have an anti-drainback valve (or if not, then there is usually one elsewhere in the system). On Ford modular V8, if you get a filter with a marginal anti-drain back vlave, then you are likely to get chain rattle if the engine sets over an extended period of time. The cam drive chains are tensioned by oil pressure, and if the oil drains out of the system, it take a heartbeat to build up pressure to the point that it can tension the chains. During this period, you can hear the chains rattle.

Fram filter may be just fine 99% of the time, but I don't like the way they are made. I don't like the paper end caps, the sloppy gluing, the crummy bypass valve, or the hard rubber anti-drain back valve of the standard orange FRAM filters. The higher priced Tough Guard filters are better, but cost more than better quality Motorcraft or Wix filters.

You can find plenty of horror stories regarding FRAM filters. I am sure you can find some related to other brands as well, but I think FRAM filters have generated more horror stories than all the others combined.

I don't buy the compressed air theory. I've seen filters installed at all sorts of angles. They all get air in them when the engine is shut down.

Ed

I've cut open a lot of engine oil filters and never seen one (even very cheap ones) that did not have some sort of pressure relief valve (usually referred to as a by-pass valve). Some cheap filters (and not so cheap filters) use a system where the flter element is pressed onto the base by a spring. If the pressure differential across the filter exceeds some level, the filter element lifts off the base, allowing the oil to flow directly from the inlet to the outlet side and bypass the element. Most filters have a bypass valve on the top of the filter element. These vary greatly in quality. Many Motorcraft flters have a more elaborate bypass valve at the base end of the filter. In theory this is better becasue it doesn't allow for the bypassed oil to wash particiles out of the filter media back into the engine.

Ed

In Waterloo actually - can't tell the difference driving through. Home of the Blackberry. Stratford is just down the road - home of Fram/Allied Signal Canadian operations (and Kralinator too) Right next to Cambridge, home of the Corolla and a hop skip and a jump from Ingersol's CAMI plant and Woodstock's RAV4 and Hino plants.

once upon a time I bought a BMW 535i with high miles and an exhaust leak (but near pristine body and interior)

had the exhaust leak fixed and adjusted the valves (solid lifter cam)

noise did not go away...

spun a rod bearing a couple kilomiles later :(

Actually had the engine replaced with a junkyard motor but sold the car when I moved to VA. Was a great car but the cost of rebuilding the suspension (would have needed it soon enough) and buying new wheels to replace the original metric TRX wheels was more than the car was worth

nate

The fact is it has been scientifically proven that Fram filters do a better job than Wix for removing the smallest particles from the oil. That was not determined by cutting filters open but by doing tests on the oil after many miles of service. And the effects of not filtering the finest particles takes many years and many miles to show up. The look of the filter may be important to you, but many taxi and delivery services use fram filters because they are more interested in the results than what the filter looks like on the inside.

Because tests have shown they do remove smaller particles than wix or purolator. That can be a good thing or a bad thing. If you have an old beater that is loaded up with an accumulation of those fines plus a worn out oil pump from many years of pumping those small particles putting a Fram filter on the engine can lead to trouble.

-jim

I understand your personal feelings about Fram. I dont use them either anymore, but have never had one fail on me. (I prefer not to swim upstream on matters like this). I am talking strictly about hard data, and there is little or none available on filters in general. I am sure the data exists, but extracting it is like pulling teeth.

Yeah, Ive heard this sort of anecdotal story before, but I have never experienced it, nor do I know anyone who has. It could be true....or not.

LOL! Not really! Lowered oil pressure in three cars with Fram filters got this thread started!

Oil pump is in fine condition. I took it off and tested it.

Funny thing, a slant six has mechanical lifters, so low oil pressure does not cause the light clatter that say, a Chevy six, or a 318 exhibits. Rod knock on startup IS SERIOUS.

They might filter the fine stuff when they stay together, but when the paper end comes off the filter media, it dilters NOTHING. And they DO come off. Not every one, but WAY too many.

No Vibes out of Cambridge as far as I know, and the Hino plant has been there 2 or 3 years.

Kitchener has lost the vast majority of it's automotive parts manufacturing, and BOTH tire plants. Kitchener Frame, formerly Budd Automotive, just closed for good last year. Almost lost lear seating this year.. Lost most of the tool and die businresses too.

Hmmm...change the filter, the oil pressure drops. On one car...ok..old worn out engine.

Two cars? Well, maybe old worn out engines.

Three cars? I'm beginning to see a trend here.

And one of the old, worn out engines only has 139,000 miles on it, not much for a Japanese car. And records I do have show oil changes every

Which also gets me. Soobs have horizontally opposed engines, with the cylinders lying flat just above the oil line. So, not all of the oil drains out of the cylinders, so when you start, they aren't totally 'dry' like an upright engine is.

You haven't seen it so it isn't a problem. So why did I see it on two different cars? Which is the sum total of my experience with slant sixes? Meaning that Frams had a 100% failure rate for me on that engine?

No, they weren't "worn out beaters" (well, one *was* a beater but it had a "fresh reman" engine in it - the other was all original with 80K miles.) And what difference does it make anyway? You really mean to say that a Wix filter can heal a worn out engine to the point that it makes the oil pressure come up faster? Sounds kinda magical, but if so, I'm gonna keep using Wix for sure!

nate