If the manufacturer paid so little attention to the correct spelling of two common words on the outside, I have to wonder how much attention they paid to the internals.
IFJF (Chinese Magnefine)
- Thread starter mcwilly
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Branding doesn't mean much with these cheap filters. bought this off amazon.ca for $26 cdn, they seem to know how to spell 'steering' and 'transmission' on this one, so I put a small screwdriver into the inlet to check the bypass, I thought it was stuck closed? peer inside, there is no bypass! it is a flat filter end plate. I will be using this for power steering, so don't think it will matter much, a transmission I would not want to use it for that.
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- Sep 2, 2016
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Thanks for the heads up - that is quite annoying. I visually inspected my IFJF filters and saw a bypass so I didn't think much of it. I went ahead and verified that there is indeed a spring-loaded bypass valve on the inlet side of my three filters. It moves easily and is situated ~2" from the inlet tip:
I used a vernier caliper and checked the Xyzil (the name sounds like a new prescription drug, lol) and it's 2 1/4" from the inlet end, so the pleated filter is slightly shorter than yours, the end cap on yours is stamped OUT, this one doesn't have the stamping, the end cap is plain.
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For what it's worth, my three IFJF filters also have plain end caps (ie no "OUT" stamping). We'd have to see a recently manufactured Magnefine to compare.
But very annoying that there are lookalikes without a bypass out there.
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The majority of IFJF filters on the fleabay are like the ones you purchased, no brand name and not stamped 'OUT', they seem to be flooding the market with lower priced IFJF filters, maybe to prop up the selling price of the branded filter and sell more volume at the same time?
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Here is a good video of an IFJF cut open after 40k km's, I wonder what the purpose is for the coil spring, maybe to aid in assembly at the factory? the filter is glued to the end cap.
Hello, you can clearly see from the side by side pictures that these are not from the same line or company. The crimps on the end are not the same quality and the barbs are welded on using a different welding process. Even before with Magnefine"s plastic version were you could unscrew it apart and inpect before and after service, the chinese copies were documented as junk and Magnefine was blamed for the chinese failures. Considering what we expect them to do on the atf and power steering lines for 30000 to 50000 miles with high heat, constant flow and high vibration I would not use the knock offs.
Found these reviews on amazon, first pic is a defective weld that split open after 30 minutes of run time, second pic is the bypass valve area that is sealed off, these are IFJF knock offs so buyer beware!
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Chinese trash.
Edit; On zooming in on the second picture, the bypass area is not 'sealed off', the end cap is flat with no provision to fit a valve.
I currently have 4 Getopauto versions of these in service without any issue. I purchased 2-packs on amazon. They were $26.99/pair. Like BOGO for the Magnefine.
You get what you pay for with this kind of stuff, but nobody listens.
I wish that was true but these filters should be less money than a typical oil filter I think. A magnet is a great idea for filtering most fluids but they shouldn't increase the cost by much.
Regardless, you get what you pay for when you buy cheap chinese crap. If they're the only true game in town and have been for years guess you got no real choice, right?
Do the Gazpacho filters have a bypass valve?
The batch of Ghettoauto filters I purchased do have a valve. That being said, I would think you would have to have some serious debris to load one of these filters enough to need to go into bypass, OR be in such a cold climate that the fluid turns into syrup. Here is a post from old plastic magnefine with 185k on it
This is a Magnefine inline Trans/Power Steering filter. It was installed on the return of a power steering system for 185k. Vehicle has seen several P/S fluid exchanges over it's life, but this is the first time for the filter being removed. I was expecting to see "more" in here. The black all over the towel is what wiped off of the internal magnet. The filter element does have some small metallic pieces all over, but nothing that would ever me any reason to worry.
The filter with the split weld, the end cap is ballooned out, by a lot... lol, review says this was installed on power steering, I think it was put on the pressure line and not the return line.
Do these things actually *need* a bypass? In what condition would your transmission cooler line, or p/s return cause a filter to go into bypass? Unless there was a catastrophic failure, I can't see either of these fluids loading up a filter enough to cause it to go into bypass.
Don't think you would ever need a bypass on power steering, the pump would growl and seize before it could use a bypass valve. On a transmission one would surely want one? Would you want to have the possibility of cut back cooler line flow with a partially obstructed filter?
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