Fram PH 3600 at 5,000 miles. Torn pleats

[dnewton3]

In that failure mode it makes sense, Zee.
Other times we see the void in the root of the fold, where the high-stress area would be most compromised.

 

[ZeeOSix]

In that failure mode it makes sense, Zee.
Other times we see the void in the root of the fold, where the high-stress area would be most compromised.

We rarely see a straight through media "blow-out" down deep in the pleat crease, especially on a filter with a center tube with small holes (open window eCore center tubes are a different story). There was one posted not long ago (link below), and I commented that it was an unusual media failure because the pleats were relatively still straight, but they where somewhat wide, but not as wide as some seen that tear at the roots instead of deep down at the pleat crease. Brittle media probably also had a factor on the media failing on the pleat crease. Flexible, non-brittle media doesn't tear very easily, but brittle media does.

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/purolator-classic-14615-cut-open.351679/

 

[cb4017]

This is a single Isolated incident. Let's wait until a pattern forms before everyone panics.

True enough. I found some pics of the previous filter that was on my Daughter's Liberty. Torn pleat but not as bad as this one. I'll post the pics in a separate thread.

 

[dnewton3]

We rarely see a straight through media "blow-out" down deep in the pleat crease, especially on a filter with a center tube with small holes (open window eCore center tubes are a different story). There was one posted not long ago (link below), and I commented that it was an unusual media failure because the pleats were relatively still straight, but they where somewhat wide, but not as wide as some seen that tear at the roots instead of deep down at the pleat crease. Brittle media probably also had a factor on the media failing on the pleat crease. Flexible, non-brittle media doesn't tear very easily, but brittle media does.

So for the media tears where it folds over, what's the theory of most likley failure mode root cause?
- Do we think this comes at first start after installation? (the oil hits an unsupported media; essentially a tear a minute one, and then spends 5k miles with the tear)
- Or, does it happen upon a high-rev/high-flow moment at WOT (anywhere from mile 1 to mile XXXX in the FCI; this is presuming the BP isn't reacting to the dP change quickly enough)

I don't know that I have any dog in the hunt; just more curious of your interpretation?

 

[ZeeOSix]

So for the media tears where it folds over, what's the theory of most likley failure mode root cause?

Edit - I read that ^^^ as tears where the pleat doesn't fold over, so the response below is about the blow-out failure as seen in the link in post #62. The root cause for the tears at the ends of the pleats like the filter in post #1 in this thread is mainly due to wide pleat spacing (and brittle media being the other large contributing factor) as already discussed.

Following is theory on why media blows out at the inner pleat crease when pleats do not fold over: My guess is the inner fold of the pleat is far enough away from the center tube that the media is unsupported and the delta-p tries to flatten the crease, and if the media is brittle it could fail. Ideally, all the inner pleat folds should be very close to the center tube when the filter rolls off the assembly line. Imagine if there was 1/4-3/8" air gap between the inner pleat folds and center tube. The delta-p is going to try and flatten the inner folds if it's too unsupported.

Could be on the Purolator linked in post #62 that the fold that tore was too far from the center tube since the pleats were not bent over. The media blew-out because it wasn't supported enough at the inner pleat fold/crease. And yes, it's possible the media is weaker at the pleat folds because the media is somewhat brittle to start with, and folding it during production could weaken it even more.

- Do we think this comes at first start after installation? (the oil hits an unsupported media; essentially a tear a minute one, and then spends 5k miles with the tear)
- Or, does it happen upon a high-rev/high-flow moment at WOT (anywhere from mile 1 to mile XXXX in the FCI; this is presuming the BP isn't reacting to the dP change quickly enough)

I think it could happen right away, or after some use, depending on all kinds of factors - ie, physical layout of the pleats, how bad is the spacing, how long are the pleats, are all inner pleat folds close to or touching the center tube, etc. Could also depend on how many super cold starts are done to subject the media to high delta-p impulse events (bypass valve may not react instantly). It might take repeated high delta-p events to weaken and eventually tear the media. All kinds of factors - oil filters have to live in a pretty harsh environment when you think about it all.