MAJOR Design Flaw with Motorcraft FL-820s filters

[Fordiesel69]

Well, it looks like these are no longer my favorite filters. I cut open 2 of these and both were the same. Where the glue the pleats together at the seam, they can split apart very easy. I pulled both apart with no effort at all. Imagine when the engine is cold and the oil is like motor honey, it seems they could spend an extra penny and put a metal clip and glue on it. See the pics below:

 

[Fordiesel69]

If some others could cut theirs open to confirm, it would be much appriciated as you never know, I may have just got a #@$%! batch.

 

[Gary Allan]

Did you happen to check the lot # on the can??

 

[Triple_Se7en]

Just speculating here & not associated with the industry. Could it be the rotating robotic arm that glues the end-caps had a major dripping problem for a spell? I wonder how long that spell was & how many times this re-occurs? Eliminating former mankind jobs for robots certainly has it's pros and cons.

What would be hilarious is if the robot came into contact with it's own drips.... gluing itself in the process.

 

[wavinwayne]

I've cut open several FL820S filters that were used for 3k mile intervals on my '97 Expedition 4.6L. I've never noticed the problems you're seeing.

 

[wavinwayne]

Here's what the media looked like on one of my FL820S filters after 3k miles on the Expedition. Still looked new to me.

 

[427Z06]

This is the first Motorcraft filter I've seen with this defect and I've cut open a bunch of them.

 

[Z_ombie]

Looked at Motorcraft filters today. Half of the filter numbers seemed to have Silicon ADBV and the rest had the Nitrile (the black kind, correct me if I'm wrong)And I could see weird stuff around the threads of every filter, like battery corrosion, and one filter appeared to have some kind of grass stuck in between the ADBV and the openings. Just looked like poor quality to me. But for 3 dollars and change I can't critisize too much.

 

[AHC]

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I've cut open several FL820S filters that were used for 3k mile intervals on my '97 Expedition 4.6L. I've never noticed the problems you're seeing.

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My experience also with a 5.4L 01 F150.

 

[Fordiesel69]

Thats the first FL820s that I saw with the ring around the pleats. I wonder if you have a different batch.

 

[T-Keith]

You're saying the thing wasn't actually split apart, but you could pull it apart? If this could have happened on the engine, don't you think it would have?

 

[RF Overlord]

Paging "Filter guy"...come in, Mel...over.

 

[Fordiesel69]

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You're saying the thing wasn't actually split apart, but you could pull it apart? If this could have happened on the engine, don't you think it would have?

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Correct, however I am not sure if it would have come apart. If you look at wavinwayne's picture, notice the pleats are nice and straight, on the otherhand, look how bent up mine are. This leads me to believe the distortion in the pleats would have caused the seam to seperate at some point, possibly when the ambient temp went down below zero or maybe in another 1-2k miles. Who knows?

I guess to reason for my extreme paranoia, is the ease at which the seam pulled apart. You would have to experiance it yourself to see where im coming from. Other filters have a metal crimp on them.

 

[Mr Nice]

'Filter Guy' took a vacation from BITOG.

Maybe you can PM him.

 

[T-Keith]

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Other filters have a metal crimp on them.

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So does every Purolator I've cut apart, that's odd.

-T

 

[Brian Barnhart]

I had essentially the same failure at the seam on a FL400S last year. I've cut open about a dozen of the FL400S filters over the last few years and that was the only one where I found any problems. If I see another one anytime soon, I'll switch to something else.

 

[glenncof]

Fordiesel69,

What mileage on the filter ?

 

[glenncof]

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What mileage on the filter ?

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I found my answer. This filter looked very dirty (esp. for 3K miles). I suggest start changing at 1K OCI's until you can see through the oil when draining, perhaps 10 changes. FL-820S at $2.35 Walmart or ST-2 SuperTech if cheaper for this operation.

 

[drewjp]

Purolator quality issues are pretty rare...although, they are under new management now...wonder if that's affected anything

 

[Pete C.]

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it seems they could spend an extra penny and put a metal clip and glue on it.

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More like $0.04 or better if it is glued and clipped.