Fram: Tough vs Ultra Guard

[RayCJ]

Hey Folks...

My OCI is 5,000 to 6,000 miles and I'm in the habit of always changing filter at the same time. The Ultra is an long-life filter (20,000 mi which I don't really need). Does it filter better than the Tough Guard? If not, I'll save a few bucks by buying the TG.


FYI: The vehicle is a 2018 Mazda 3 with a 2.5L engine.

Thanks

Ray

 

[SnowDrifter]

Ultra is a full synthetic media

 

[RayCJ]

Originally Posted by SnowDrifter
Ultra is a full synthetic media



Thanks but, I'm not sure what the implications are. Does it filter smaller particles or does it last longer (or both)?

Ray

 

[maxdustington]

If you drive a lot of miles, run it for multiple OCIs. Most of the Ultras that people post on here are in service for 13k miles or so, you need to drive a lot to hit 20k miles in a reasonable amount of time. I would run an OCOD for that OCI, TG can do 10k miles easy.

 

[ZeeOSix]

The TG is just a hair less efficient than the Ultra.

 

[RayCJ]

Originally Posted by ZeeOSix
The TG is just a hair less efficient than the Ultra.


Gotcha... Thanks. Perhaps I'll modify the routine to change filter "every-other" OC and go with the Ultra Guard.

3 bucks difference... -not too worried about it.

Thanks all...

Ray

 

[Ablebody]

I would pick which ever one you believe can best filter out small particles, such as dirt and HAIRS or debris from internal combustion, from the beginning of use. There's some debate on weather or not the the all synthetic long life filters are necessarily as efficient early on as they are deemed to be. It's really hard to know so I guess one might just go by his gut on that one.

 

[53' Stude]

Tough Guard. Never had a single issue with them

 

[buck91]

I drive about 10k per year and change based on a trifecta of IOLM/mileage/time. Generally this works out to OCI of 1yr/10k miles. I use have been using Fram Ultra lately.

 

[jongies3]

TG is what I use on my Toyota for 8k intervals. Although, a standard orange Fram could easily do the interval you specified. I've used the Ultra before and have one remaining in my stash, I just can't justify "wasting" them on such short intervals, either! Lol

 

[RayCJ]

Thanks all...


It's a done deal now. I ordered 2 Ultra Guards and spent 20 bucks instead of 14. I don't think the accounting office (wife) will trigger a financial investigation.

Which one does my gut think will filter better? Ehhh, who knows! I'm only driving about 12k miles a year now and try to split the intervals roughly between winter and summer. I've never had engine problems and in decades gone-by, before synthetic oil became popular, I used the low-end Fram filters almost exclusively. I know that people like to dog them but, I always liked Fram because of the stippled coating. I can get them on/off by hand with no struggle.

I've never done an oil analysis before. Once I get the factory oil out of this car in another 1k miles, I'll start testing in the future. I'll skip the filter every-other change and we'll see what the analysis has to say about that in due time.


Ray

 

[Ablebody]

Originally Posted by buck91
I drive about 10k per year and change based on a trifecta of IOLM/mileage/time. Generally this works out to OCI of 1yr/10k miles. I use have been using Fram Ultra lately.

My Toyota owners manual says to go 10k between oil changes if using full synthetic oil. It dosent mention changing the filter out sooner. When I do use synthetic oil in it I just leave the filter on the whole time and usually it's just a typical filter. Never been a problem. Apparently Toyota isn't too worried about the filter I guess. I do believe that Toyota cares very much about the longevity of their products. It's probably the top reason theyer one of the largest manufactuer of cars.
Mazda says 7500 as does my ford. Motor craft cartridge in the Ford looks as good as new after

 

[RayCJ]

Originally Posted by Ablebody
Originally Posted by buck91
I drive about 10k per year and change based on a trifecta of IOLM/mileage/time. Generally this works out to OCI of 1yr/10k miles. I use have been using Fram Ultra lately.

My Toyota owners manual says to go 10k between oil changes if using full synthetic oil. It dosent mention changing the filter out sooner. When I do use synthetic oil in it I just leave the filter on the whole time and usually it's just a typical filter. Never been a problem. Apparently Toyota isn't too worried about the filter I guess. I do believe that Toyota cares very much about the longevity of their products. It's probably the top reason theyer one of the largest manufactuer of cars.
Mazda says 7500 as does my ford. Motor craft cartridge in the Ford looks as good as new after


I've had 4 (actually 5) Toyota's since 1980 and put 150,000 miles or more on all but one (destroyed in a fire). I had a significant commute at one time. In the non-synthetic oil days, I changed oil & filter every 3k miles like clockwork. Toyota's are darn good cars in my book. In 2007, I bought my wife a Mazda6 and still have it. It's got 130k and I've always used synthetic oil (mostly Walmart SuperTech) and factory OEM or PureOne (purolator's higher-end) filter cartridges with a consistent 5,000-6,000 mile OCI. The car runs like a top. I bought another Mazda6 in 2009 but it was stolen a few years later. Great car while I had it. After that, another Toyota ( '12 Tacoma) w/a 4-banger. Factory bulletin said to do 5,000 OCI's on it. Bought it new and put 65k miles on it but, gave it to my oldest son. Now I have the '18 Mazda3 and am liking it a lot.

The Mazda3 owner's manual says 5000 or 7500 OCI's. Just bought it 2 months ago and now has 2k miles on it. I'm doing to dump the factory oil at 3k because I can see the reflective particles suspended in the oil and it's bugging the daylights out of me, even though I know those particles are sub-micron and won't hurt anything. I want fresh oil going into winter.

...Sorry about the oil/history rant...

Ray

 

[ZeeOSix]

Knowing the details on how ISO 4548-12 is ran will show that filters rating high in efficiency don't have much if any efficiency change from new to almost fully loaded. Filters that have lower efficiency could be losing some efficiency as they load up due to debris sloughing of as delta-p increases across the media.

 

[Linctex]

Originally Posted by ZeeOSix
Knowing the details on how ISO 4548-12 is ran will show that filters rating high in efficiency don't have much if any efficiency change from new to almost fully loaded.


That's pretty darn interesting.....

 

[Ablebody]

Originally Posted by RayCJ
Originally Posted by Ablebody
Originally Posted by buck91
I drive about 10k per year and change based on a trifecta of IOLM/mileage/time. Generally this works out to OCI of 1yr/10k miles. I use have been using Fram Ultra lately.

My Toyota owners manual says to go 10k between oil changes if using full synthetic oil. It dosent mention changing the filter out sooner. When I do use synthetic oil in it I just leave the filter on the whole time and usually it's just a typical filter. Never been a problem. Apparently Toyota isn't too worried about the filter I guess. I do believe that Toyota cares very much about the longevity of their products. It's probably the top reason theyer one of the largest manufactuer of cars.
Mazda says 7500 as does my ford. Motor craft cartridge in the Ford looks as good as new after


I've had 4 (actually 5) Toyota's since 1980 and put 150,000 miles or more on all but one (destroyed in a fire). I had a significant commute at one time. In the non-synthetic oil days, I changed oil & filter every 3k miles like clockwork. Toyota's are darn good cars in my book. In 2007, I bought my wife a Mazda6 and still have it. It's got 130k and I've always used synthetic oil (mostly Walmart SuperTech) and factory OEM or PureOne (purolator's higher-end) filter cartridges with a consistent 5,000-6,000 mile OCI. The car runs like a top. I bought another Mazda6 in 2009 but it was stolen a few years later. Great car while I had it. After that, another Toyota ( '12 Tacoma) w/a 4-banger. Factory bulletin said to do 5,000 OCI's on it. Bought it new and put 65k miles on it but, gave it to my oldest son. Now I have the '18 Mazda3 and am liking it a lot.

The Mazda3 owner's manual says 5000 or 7500 OCI's. Just bought it 2 months ago and now has 2k miles on it. I'm doing to dump the factory oil at 3k because I can see the reflective particles suspended in the oil and it's bugging the daylights out of me, even though I know those particles are sub-micron and won't hurt anything. I want fresh oil going into winter.

...Sorry about the oil/history rant...

Ray

I like those new 3s. Hope you have a good long time with it.
My 2012 Mazda just turned 130k
My 08 fusion/Mazda 6 has 160
Great cars.
Wife's 2012 Yaris just about 45k. No doubt we could hand it down to my 10 year old son when he's off to college

 

[Ablebody]

Originally Posted by RayCJ
Originally Posted by Ablebody
Originally Posted by buck91
I drive about 10k per year and change based on a trifecta of IOLM/mileage/time. Generally this works out to OCI of 1yr/10k miles. I use have been using Fram Ultra lately.

My Toyota owners manual says to go 10k between oil changes if using full synthetic oil. It dosent mention changing the filter out sooner. When I do use synthetic oil in it I just leave the filter on the whole time and usually it's just a typical filter. Never been a problem. Apparently Toyota isn't too worried about the filter I guess. I do believe that Toyota cares very much about the longevity of their products. It's probably the top reason theyer one of the largest manufactuer of cars.
Mazda says 7500 as does my ford. Motor craft cartridge in the Ford looks as good as new after


I've had 4 (actually 5) Toyota's since 1980 and put 150,000 miles or more on all but one (destroyed in a fire). I had a significant commute at one time. In the non-synthetic oil days, I changed oil & filter every 3k miles like clockwork. Toyota's are darn good cars in my book. In 2007, I bought my wife a Mazda6 and still have it. It's got 130k and I've always used synthetic oil (mostly Walmart SuperTech) and factory OEM or PureOne (purolator's higher-end) filter cartridges with a consistent 5,000-6,000 mile OCI. The car runs like a top. I bought another Mazda6 in 2009 but it was stolen a few years later. Great car while I had it. After that, another Toyota ( '12 Tacoma) w/a 4-banger. Factory bulletin said to do 5,000 OCI's on it. Bought it new and put 65k miles on it but, gave it to my oldest son. Now I have the '18 Mazda3 and am liking it a lot.

The Mazda3 owner's manual says 5000 or 7500 OCI's. Just bought it 2 months ago and now has 2k miles on it. I'm doing to dump the factory oil at 3k because I can see the reflective particles suspended in the oil and it's bugging the daylights out of me, even though I know those particles are sub-micron and won't hurt anything. I want fresh oil going into winter.

...Sorry about the oil/history rant...

Ray

I like those new 3s. Hope you have a good long time with it.
My 2012 Mazda just turned 130k
My 08 fusion/Mazda 6 has 160
Great cars.
Wife's 2012 Yaris just about 45k. No doubt we could hand it down to my 10 year old son when he's off to college

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted by Linctex
Originally Posted by ZeeOSix
Knowing the details on how ISO 4548-12 is ran will show that filters rating high in efficiency don't have much if any efficiency change from new to almost fully loaded.

That's pretty darn interesting.....


The ISO 4548-12 efficiency is defined as the average between the new and nearly 100% loaded condition. So for a filter to be rated at say 99% at 20u, it sure can't drop much in efficiency during the whole test run.

But if a filter is rated at say 50% at 20u, it probably has inefficient media, and it could on top of that also be sloughing off debris as it gets more loaded up (more delta-p) which will hurt the average efficiency rating.

 

[RayCJ]

Originally Posted by ZeeOSix

The ISO 4548-12 efficiency is defined as the average between the new and nearly 100% loaded condition. So for a filter to be rated at say 99% at 20u, it sure can't drop much in efficiency during the whole test run.

But if a filter is rated at say 50% at 20u, it probably has inefficient media, and it could on top of that also be sloughing off debris as it gets more loaded up (more delta-p) which will hurt the average efficiency rating.


Thank you... That makes me feel a lot better about skipping the filter change at every oil interval.

Ray

 

[Whimsey]

At the Walmart's near me there is a whopping $2.33 difference between the Tough Guard and the Ultra Guard oil filters for my sizes. It's such a small difference in costs for a a much better filter that can be used for multiple oil changes up to 20,000 mi, thus actually costing less in the end. The Extra Guard filter, the orange can, is $5 less than the Ultra Guard. If you're going to do ~5,000 mi OCIs then it's worth it to use the Extra Guard oil filter. And now the Extra Guard, orange can, has a silicone ADV that makes it even a better deal.

Whimsey