I hate to tell you this, but Fram is also an OEM filter provider.
Manufacturers change their vendors every 5-10 years. Today it’s Wix, tomorrow it’s Fram. As long as it meets their specs (which all fram filters do).
Fram outsells it’s top 5 competitors COMBINED. Even if .01 percent of all Fram filters were junk we’d be seeing THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of engines destroyed by people using Fram filters. Since we aren’t it’s obvious that they are not junk.
Their size also can explain the number of complaints. If Fram has 50% of the market and 25% of the complaints, they are much better than the competition. That gets lost in the sheer volume of the complaints.
Except that as others have mentioned, engines run just fine without any filter at all. For a while, anyhow. You won’t destroy an engine with a lousy (or no) filter, you’ll just shorten its life.
I’m curious, why do you think Fiat-Chrysler redesigned the oil filter and oil filter housing for the 2014 model year Pentastar to add the additional overpressure valve at the top of the filter? Just because they felt like it? (Go check out the Alldata on any 2014 Chrysler V6 versus the 2013 Chrysler V6 if you want to see the difference between the two, I’ve held the two in my hand side by side, they’re quite different).
I can guarantee they didn’t redesign it because of faulty Fram oil filters. That would be NUTS!
Again…we’d see THOUSANDS of engines destroyed. I personally have owned 2 vehicles with well over 300k miles using Fram filters exclusively. One a little shy of 500k miles. There are THOUSANDS of repair shops all over the country that do the same. Sorry…but the evidence is still favoring Fram to make a quality filter. You’ve shown nothing otherwise.
The orange can Frams “Extra Guard” are the ones that have the bad rep. I’ve actually had one fail on me. I was changing the oil on the Bronco, put on a new Fram orange can of death, put in six quarts of oil. started it up, and was backing vehicle up, putting the back under the carport, and noticed steady stream oil the ground as I was reversing, I cut the engine off immediately (the whole episode took about 7 seconds, got back out and saw that I had lost a noticeable amount of oil (probably a quart or so) and it was coming out from the oil filter. I took the oil filter off and noticed that the rubber gasket was now missing, and oil was leaving the vehicle/filter due to it’s absence. It looked around on the ground and found it, it was in two pieces. I hopped in the TR6 and headed back up to the auto parts store to get a new filter. This time I went with the stock motorcraft filter which at the time made buy Purolator (IIRC it was a Premium Plus casing with Pure One filter media/internals), and I stuck with those for the duration of my ownership of the vehicle.
The Fram Ultras (their high end filter) has a good reputation, I’ve used it before and had no problems. Realistically any brand-name oil filter is probably going to serve you well enough. The orange frams are definitely built to a price compared to higher end filters, the $2-$3 difference is worth the piece of mind to me though.
I really don’t know anything about Fram except they are carried in the general parts stores. I still fail to understand why one would use a Fram instead of the OEM for nearly the same cost, then argue that they are just as good as an OEM. I just don’t see why the fervent protection of orange versus blue when you know blue meets all of the specs for the engine.
From an economic theory point of view, maybe Fram is needed in the marketplace as competition to keep the OEM at “nearly the same cost”.
IOW, if there were no Fram or others like it, the OEM would cost even more.
Mainly because they are not nearly the same cost. OEM filter is 2-3 times the cost of a Fram or even a Wix.
Also convenience. Dealers parts department aren’t open weekends or after the time I get out of work.
Two very good reasons.
In addition, I get my oil at Walmart anyway. Why should I make an extra trip to the Toyota dealer at a time when they’re open just to get a filter? In my case that’s a considerable amount of added time.
I prefer to avoid the cheapest Fram Filter (Extra Guard). If I go with a Fram, I’m going to upgrade to the Tough Guard model, because the last time I used an Extra Guard on my car, the readings on the dip stick made it look as though the filter might lack a backflow-preventer/valve that the OEM filter appears to have. The Tough Guard is only a couple bucks more anyway.
I’ve done that to remove a motorcycle oil filter, but I’ve never had to do that on a car. I only hand-tighten the oil filters I install on cars, and I have a pretty tight Kung Fu grip. On the other hand, motorcycle oil filters have to be torqued to spec using a torque wrench.
Let’s test that theory with some data:
The Fram Extra Guard for my car from O’Reilly at http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detail/FRA1/PH3593A.oap?year=1998&make=Honda&model=Civic&vi=1315643&pt=C0289&ppt=C0023 is $4.49.
According to Honda Civic Oil Filter - Guaranteed Genuine Honda Parts, an OEM oil filter for my 1998 Honda Civic is $5.12.
The Toyota OEM filter for my Highlander and wifes Lexus is $11 at the dealer. Maybe more because that was 2 years ago when I checked last. The Fram filter or Wix filter is under $5. Even cheaper if I buy them by the case.
Last year, the Walmarts near me switched from Purolater to Fram. The Purolaters were put on clearance for .75 cents each. I bought every one left on the shelf in my size. I have to admit, I avoid Fram since seeing them cut open years ago. The only filter I’ve had a problem with was a Walmart brand filter. That was just a nightmare to remove because the case was so thin, it just collapsed like a soda can with the filter wrench on it. Took me 2 hours to get it off.
And I avoid Purolator because of fit-close philosophy.
Many years ago I did an oil change on my wife’s 87 Accord. Usually used a Fram, but this time the store was out of the filter for the Accord, so I bought a Purolator. Changed the oil started car up and backed out of garage and noticed a huge pool of oil in the garage floor - at least a quart.
Problem was the filter gasket…That model Accord had a grove on the engine block that the filter must fit into. The Purolator filter was about 1/32" too big and didn’t fit.
Seems that the filter for a Mazda of the same year and the Accord were extremely close in size. Everything was the same spec, except the gasket. Purolator decided not to make two different filters for the vehicles, where as Fram and Wix did. That 1/32" difference was enough to make a difference. On many vehicles this wouldn’t be an issue because most engine blocks don’t have this grove that the gasket sits in. But the Accord does. I guess Purolator didn’t know or didn’t care.
The MSRP for the Toyota 04152-YZZA1 oil filter is $5.41, they can be purchased for less online.
I’ve never owned a Toyota so can’t say but I order 6 Honda filters at a time for under $6 each. When I bought a couple at the dealer they were about $10 each. I really missed that lost $4 over three months. Walmart carries AC filters believe it or not and they are under $5. I used to buy my AC filters at O’Reilly until they went all in with Fram and don’t sell much else. I think it was a mistake like Sears but they didn’t ask me.
They also carry Motocraft, but from what I see very limited supply of filters.
As for AC filters…when I owned my 84 S-15, GM changed the oil filter spec for the 2.8L engine at least 3 times for the 6 years I owed that vehicle. Some of the changes were very subtle, but one of the changes the new filter was clearly much longer. Their next change the filter was smaller (even smaller then their first gen filter). Every time GM changed their filter spec, so did Fram. The last year I owned that truck - Purolator’s filter had never changed. That’s the only vehicle I ever owned that had any oil filter spec change.
I liked w at Ford did back in the 60’s and 70’s. One oil filter for all their vehicles no matter what engine (Frams version was the PH8A)
Is any one here who is old enough to remember the oil bath air filter’s?