I agree with Tester. Also, I haven’t seen any evidence that Fram oil filters have caused problems in vehicles. All I hear or read is that they are bad from people that don’t like the way they look inside compared to other brands.
If you change your oil at the intervals recommended by your car’s maintenance manual (mine is 6 months or 5,000 miles whichever comes first) it shouldn’t matter which filter you use.
thank’s for the advice. Will continue to use fram for now
The Fram end disk material is more likely fishpaper or vulcanized fiber, certainly not not cardboard. It is a tough material that is used as an electrical insulation. Here is a YouTube video from an engineer at Fram. Others use vulcanized fiber end caps including Bentley; yet others use no end cap at all.
Having a bypass valve doesn’t make them bypass filters. Unless the filtering material is blocked 100% of the oil should flow through the filter.Bypass filters were after market add ons from long ago on automobiles.
Or if it’s -10 degrees and the oil is too thick to pass thru the filter media, there better be a by-pass valve or you’ll starve the engine of oil. Or if you’re driving at higher RPM’s where the oil pump is pumping more oil at a higher pressure, there better be a by-pass valve or you’ll starve the engine of oil.
Tester
Personally, I’m skeptical about Fram filters because they tend to be cheaper than some other brands
I also don’t really trust Purolator, either
When cheap price is the key marketing factor of a product the quality does become suspect, @db4690. I prefer OE when readily available and WIX or Hastings as alternatives. But as they say, to each his own. A well maintained late model car driven in normal conditions might last 300,000 miles if the filter were just a hollow shell.
I run Motorcraft (usually) on my F150 because it’s only 70c more than a Purolator…figure for that price, it “looks right.”
I don’t know that it’s "better, " but I have heard good things about 'em…
All I can say is that I had clatter at start up when using a Fram filter. It went away when I switched to Wix.
Here is a link I’ve posted before–someone took it upon themselves to cut open filters of various brands and post the results:
300cforums.com/forums/general-discussion-issues-trouble-shooting/31190-oil-filters-dissected.html
While Fram may NOT be the best filter…they certainly are NOT bad. Since Fram outsells all other filter manufacturer…if there was design/manufacturing problem with the filters…then we’d be seeing TENS OF THOUSANDS of destroyed engines every year. MILLIONS of vehicles in the US alone use Fram filters. With just a .01% failure rate would equate to THOUSDANDS of failed filters and destroyed engines every year. I’ve yet to hear of an engine being destroyed by a faulty filter…or know a mechanic who’s ever seen one.
Fram meets the manufacturer’s specifications, and they meet those specifications more consistently than some other more expensive brands. You can buy the most expensive, best designed and best built filter on the market, but if you get one of their defects that slipped by the inspectors, it can damage your engine. I got a Mobil 1 filter, very expensive at the time, that was full of metal shavings caused by a broken thread cutting insert. Glad I spotted it before installing it.
I’m with Rod Knox that even an empty can would probably not hurt anything on a reasonably well maintained modern car. The oils are so good, the engines so well made and clean burning and sealed from the dust and dirt in the atmosphere that the oil filter just doesn’t have that much to do anymore.
The only reason I don’t use Fram is because now I use the cheapest house brand filters I can find. I stopped using the high priced ones years ago. I used to use the Walmart brand SuperTech filters and the SuperTech synthetic oil in my Saturn and went on average a little over 11,000 miles between oil changes. After 100k miles, I switched to the cheapest house brand or “on sale” regular oil I could find and the cheapest house brand filters. It currently has 267k miles and still running like new.
Fram has manufactured a quadrillion oil filters it seems and most outlets are a sea of orange.
Based on the sheer numbers sold and this bogus (in my opinion) perception that they’re faulty, the end result should be a roadside cluttered with cars that have trashed engines and the courthouse packed with litigants suing over the filters.
Personally, I’ve never seen nor even heard from any other mechanic about a trashed or damaged engine due to a Fram; or any other branded name filter for that matter. One would think that if the bad Fram stories were true the odds would have caused an example to surface.
If Fram filters cost less then they, apparently one of the larger auto oil filter suppliers if not the largest, are passing economy of scale along to their customers in the form of lower prices. That, of course, helps Fram to keep their market share and makes selling price for this particular kind of product a questionable way to judge quality.
Marching to the beat of a different drummer just suits some people, maybe.
I never specifically said Fram didn’t make good filters
I merely said I am skeptical about the quality, and that I don’t use them
I also did NOT imply that using Fram filters will cause engine damage
I don’t know who said that, but it doesn’t seem to be anybody on this website
I don’t think the filter matters much if the oil is changed at reasonable intervals. I can remember when they were optional on many cars and Chrysler used to call for replacement every other oil change. All of the ,beloved by many, air cooled VWs came without one.
The only criticism I had on the Fram was that on Chrysler products that had oil filters mounted horizontally they would let the oil drain out of the filter and the lifters would clatter until the filter filled up. I had a Voyager that did this and a Horizon that the cam had to be replaced because of this.
When all is said and done, we have posters here who buy Walmart dino oil and the cheapest filters they can find, then religously change oil and filters and get over 300,000 miles of good engine performance without internal engine work.
I used to change oil myself and shopped around for best price. The last time I did internal engine work was on a 1957 Plymout six in the summer of 1964!
@db4690, my post was not meant to infer that you claimed Fram filters are bad. If it appeared that way, I apologize.
My comment was meant to be general in nature because I’ve read a number of Fram complaints and don’t put a lot of credence into them.
One was a guy who claimed Fram filters ruined his engine because “it did not maintain oil pressure while the engine is off”. How that works I will never know… 
Another was a guy who reprogrammed his turbocharged car, bragged about pegging the tach repeatedly, and then blamed the oil filter when the engine scattered.
@Joeguy @Tester
Pearls of wisdom.
The only encounter I had with “ONE” Fram was after the car sat for a few hours I would get a slight bearing knock for 2 seconds on my 89 Mustang GT after start up. Changed the filter to a Motorcraft and problem went away. Maybe a bad anti drain back valve…I have used them on many vehicles for years and no problems. When ever I change my oil I always fill up the filter with oil first to save time on a dry start up.