Fram is slipping in the air filter category

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buickman50401

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I was shopping for a new air filter for my wife's VW last night. Advanced was closed so I was looking at the Frams at Fleet Farm. $10.50. Not a bad price. Good think I opened the box. Every one of the 5 they had on hand were malformed. Rubber seal with excess flashing, parts of the seal missing from poor QC during molding. Pleats all jacked up on one side where they met the foam rubber seal.

I stopped at ORielly to get a Microguard (Fram made) filter thinking they would be different since they are not constructed quite the same with the MG using a black and slightly thinner foam surround. Same issues on the 2 they had on hand as I saw in the Frams.

I skipped buying one period. Will have to check out the Puros at Advance or order an OEM on line.
 
QC on a chinese product? ahah.

Joking aside, send them an email explaining what you saw they may be able to recall, not sure.
 
Sometimes we like to think in America that Santa and his Elves are setting at a big table making us the perfect oil filter, the perfect fuel control, the perfect radiator and on and on.
Guess what, it ain't so Joe. I pick up a lot of freight around this country and there are thousands of machines stamping and grinding and so on. There are no little Elves eyeing our products just for you or me. In foreign countries ,, forget it, its all for the buck. The only nostalgia is in our minds. Its not like it use to be where someone really cared about how things were made. ( now we got plastic parts and we all know how long that junk last out here on the road) Can we say made south of the border,maybe Asia,( carhart jackets are made in Southeast Asia, its on the labels ) Nostalgia anyone??
 
Originally Posted By: CourierDriver
In foreign countries ,, forget it, its all for the buck.


Not sure what you mean by "foreign" countries, but Germany, Japan, and Korea among others make high quality products.

As for quality control, some companies take it more serious than others...
 
I once bought a Fram air filter that had excess flashing. I had to trim some of it away to make it fit. It was made in the USA! I don't think we are entitled to rip on foreign quality anymore.
 
Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
Remember Bill's WIX air filters that were poor quality ?


Some red commies must have slipped them in!!

I remember my 1981 Olds Omega....the odometer flipped to 000000 every 100,000 miles. I'm guessing they never expected it to go over 100,000 miles....it barely did. And guess what? All those over-built sturdy metal parts? They take energy (gas) to propel.....

My "cheap and flimsy" Korean made car....already beat the Omega.

When were these halcyon days of perfect US goods we're talking about?
 
The Fram EG air filter for Chrysler minivan, filter bought very recently, was made in Canada, was perfect sealing/made, media looks fine, and $6.50 at WM. So it varies I guess. I am not too keen on Fram anything if they are starting to outsource USA jobs to China though.
 
Originally Posted By: Kestas
I once bought a Fram air filter that had excess flashing. I had to trim some of it away to make it fit. It was made in the USA! I don't think we are entitled to rip on foreign quality anymore.
Not knocking imported quality here but I would rather pay someone for making a product than paying someone unemployment,,, as possible.
 
This episode of "How It's Made" shows the FRAM air filter factory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U38ZdVFZIM

The orange stuff is applied by robots.

A worker trims the orange mold flash at approximately 3:39 on the YouTube video.

Notice the speed that she is working. She only has about 4 seconds to trim the filter.


------------------------------------------

1999 Olds GLS 3.4L
 
Originally Posted By: defektes
send them an email explaining what you saw they may be able to recall, not sure.


+1 exact.
You need to make them aware of a potential problem. I love the Fram air filters and dont think they are slipping..could be a manufactering error.
 
I would personally just pick up a Mahle or MANN air filter. Whether it be engine or cabin.

I always either of those brands on mine and my moms VWs.
 
I was looking at the Fram air filters for my Mazda3 last week and was impressed with the quality construction. I think the filter was made in Isreal. Maybe some of their filters are made better than others.
 
Some things just go well together: Peas and carrots, peanut butter and chocolate, Volkswagen and Mann-Hummel filters.

Mann made the housings,, let them make the filters.
 
Fram Air filter doesn't fit well on my camry. It is hard to put it on too.

So I use toyota OEM air filter. It is way better. It fits perfect. cost only $8.
 
Sometimes air filters can be a pain to put on. Mostly because the old filter is already squished in their real good from being installed. Ive had it where I had to double check them a day later because they were real tight to fit in their and couldn't tell if the seal was sealing properly and not getting pinched. 24hrs or being fitted inside the air box will make it so it fits in their evenly so you can tell if it's sealing or not. But yes the seal shouldn't have excess material causing it to not seal properly. I always seem to find proplems with filters. Doesn't seem to matter which brand
 
Some filters are "will fit", meaning where different OEM filters are a few mm smaller or bigger, you can get it in.

Mann (at lease in Brazil) is making a lot of these "Multi" oil filters that they use to replace a dozen or so individual ones, even thought the relief pressures aren't close.
 
I've never really been impressed with Fram air filters.

Here's a picture of one for my pickup truck, that I took at W-M.

No thanks. Wavy pleats, random large gaps all over the place, the dried goo in a feeble attempt to keep everything in place?

This filter looked nothing like the filter that it rolled off of the assembly line with.

DSCF1266.jpg
 
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