In praise of the cartridge oil filter

[tolian21]

If the cartridge (OEM) filter was an issue in my '21 Audi SQ5 Sportback w/3.0 TFSI V6, then the UOA would show high insolubles:

https://www.blackstone-labs.com/what-are-insolubles/

View attachment 289989

As such, in 23k miles and 5 OCIs, the measured insoluables has been negligible.

I am sure you know that oil analysis tells only part of the story. There is more expensive analysis to count particles of different microns that is too expensive to do…

 

[53' Stude]

It's oil change season at the Elkins household and this week I did my Mazda6 and my wife's 2009 RAV4. The Mazda takes a 6607 size spin-on and the RAV takes a 9927 cartridge. What you're looking a here is the cartridge element from the RAV on the left next to the core of the Purolator Classic 14612 removed from the can.

I wish all my vehicles used cartridge filters because it would be nice to see the condition of the media before using it rather than after it has (or hasn't) done the job. This orange box Fram looks a lot better than the innards of the ToughGuard I pulled off my Scion last week. You can hide a lot of shoddy construction inside that metal can. Plus, there's a lot less energy-intensive metal that might end up in a landfill with a cartridge filter.

View attachment 289374

No thanks on those. Toyota has right idea: ditch the metal core and endcaps. Most oil filters I generate at home and work don’t pollute or go to “landfill”. They get crushed, put in 2000+ kiln. Then shredded and made into steel, rebar etc. I like spin on filters yes

 

[nickaluch]

Cartridge filters are great, learned that with my first Ecotec 20 years ago.

Easy oil change cartridge comes out from the top of the motor you're not laying on your back

 

[tolian21]

I do agree that there is a benefit of actually seeing what you are putting in and also easy inspection of what comes out after oil change.
You can also test easily if bypass spring still works

 

[ZeeOSix]

I am sure you know that oil analysis tells only part of the story. There is more expensive analysis to count particles of different microns that is too expensive to do…

To add ... from this exercise I found no correlation between the Insolubles % and an ISO particle count when looking at many Blackstone UOAs posted on this site. There is however a correlation between filter efficiency and the resulting ISO particle count.

Thread 'UOA "Insolubles %" vs ISO Particle Count'

Sep 4, 2018

Many times someone will say ... "Hey, the oil filter must have been doing a good job because the UOA "Insolubles %" was low". But it's also been mentioned that the "Insolubles %" is an insensitive and bad parameter to measure the oil cleanliness to reflect oil filtering effectiveness.

So I went and found 4 UOAs on BITOG from Blackstone that included the ISO Particle Count data. The data was compared and graphed - see attachment below. Note that the "Insolubles %" doesn't really correlate well with the ISO Particle Count data. I know this is only 4 data points, but I'm thinking if...

• ZeeOSix
• Replies: 26
• Forum: Engine Oil Filters

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