Fram can be good

[Patman]

Originally Posted By: GMBoy


2. I think the silver can ones (forget which one since every model ends with "guard" seem ok since they have metal endcaps.



The only ones with metal endcaps are the Extended Guard filters, in the gold cans. The ones in the silver cans are the Tough Guards and they use the cardboard endcaps.

 

[Johnny]

There is nothing wrong with the fiberboard (not cardboard) end caps. They work. The only problem I have with the regular old orange can FRAMS is that they do not use silicon ADBV. Nothing wrong with the way they filter.

I know, I know, I know, you can buy other filters cheaper that you perceive do a better job.

 

[steve20]

""" Sad thing about all this is several years ago, someone with nothing better to do started cutting open filters and judging them by what they looked liked inside, have no idea how they worked."""

This should be a STICKY--maybe BITOG should require the poster to read this post daily before they are allowed to post on BITOG

 

[addyguy]

Originally Posted By: Johnny
There is nothing wrong with the fiberboard (not cardboard) end caps. They work. The only problem I have with the regular old orange can FRAMS is that they do not use silicon ADBV. Nothing wrong with the way they filter.

I know, I know, I know, you can buy other filters cheaper that you perceive do a better job.


+1.

 

[postjeeprcr]

Originally Posted By: Johnny
There is nothing wrong with the fiberboard (not cardboard) end caps. They work. The only problem I have with the regular old orange can FRAMS is that they do not use silicon ADBV. Nothing wrong with the way they filter.

I know, I know, I know, you can buy other filters cheaper that you perceive do a better job.


Very well said Johnny. A lot of people on here perceive other filters that sell for cheaper, but can't possibly be made cheaply even though they are sold for less, do a better job.

 

[teambeechstreet]

Never had a problem with a Fram on any of my cars.

Here are my personal reasons for not using Fram products:

My father had purchased a Ford F350 Super Duty with the 6.0 Powerstroke. When the oil change was due, he picked up a couple Fram oil filters (suggested to him by a Kragen employee), some Delo 15w40, and did his oil change. So three oil changes later, with 5K OCIs, I visit my parents and my father shows me the three oil filters from his previous oil changes. The two Fram filters had collapsed in on themselves and pieces of the filter media were missing. The third was a Baldwin that looked just as good structurally as a new one.

In the last 3 years of my employment at a mechanic shop and servicing thousands of cars, the only brand of oil filters I've seen fail are PremiumGuard and Fram. Several cars have come in with seized motors. Culprit: all the vehicles had Fram oil filters that failed. Internal media and glue came apart and clogged up passageways, starving the motors of oil. I personally took the filter off one of the busted motors and the guts of the filter came spilling out. Now I know there were probably other reasons that also attributed to the failures of these motors, but it was hard to deny that the Fram filter was the main culprit when you tear down a motor and see pieces of filter internals clogged in passageways.

The last reason: when the owner of the shop I am employed at first started putting the business together, he was looking for an oil filter supplier and contacted Fram. He passed on them because they would not backup their filters with any type of warranty. So he called up Champion Labs and got their filters for about 30 cents less per filter and it included a warranty of some ridiculously high number like half a million dollars on ALL of their filters!

I've also talked to customers that have gone 100K and beyond with their cars using primarily Fram oil filters. I've also talked to people who have had K&N oil filters blow off (I don't use K&N oil filters even if they are made by Champ Labs).

Whoops, totally didn't mean to write a friggin novel here. Just wanted to share some personal experiences with Fram and why I don't think it's a quality product.

 

[Sayjac]

No perception isues for for me, I know exactly what's inside an orange can. Show me any high line quality filter that uses that uses "fiberboard" endcaps. I haven't seen any, even Fram themselves uses metal endcaps on it's top of the line Extended Guard filter.

If Fram charged $1.50-
So in the case of overpriced orange can fiberboard construction, perception is reality.

Oh wait, it's not fiberboard either, it's "engineered media".

 

[labman]

That is rather disturbing. With as many Frams as are sold, it is no wonder they dominate failures. A couple of questions. Since the shop used Champs, were you dealing with a subset of engines with fewer Frams? Were the Frams failures ones run longer rather than the ones regularly serviced with Champs? I am not defending Fram, just wanting information to make a good decision.