MOTORCRAFT FILTER AVAILABILITY

[M Smith]

My wife's Villager takes a FL-839 oil filter. I've had good UOA's using the FL-839; Dyson even remarked once that the oil filter was working well. Based on that I've tried to use the FL-839, but my most recent purchase from the local dealership cost me nearly $10.

Does anyone know why Wal Mart carries what seems to be an increasing inventory of Motorcraft filters and oil, but not the FL-839?

 

[SVTDoood]

I get my FL820s from either Wal-Mart or Auto Zone. Shoild have your model # there as well.

Oh..and they're usually around ~$3.00

 

[opus1]

Not necessarily. The Wal-Marts by me have Motorcraft filters in certain sizes only, which I'm assuming are the most popular. FL-1A, FL-400, FL-820 come to mind. If I want to use Motorcrafts on my fleet, I need either FL-200 or FL-321 and I have yet to find one of those at any Wal-Mart. At least at any in my area.

 

[penzdude]

mr smith, if your having problems getting the motorcrafts, just get a purolator. they make the aftermarket motorcrafts...i beleieve the original assembly line installed motorcrafts are champion. the purolator cross reference for the fl-839 is the L-24457.

 

[jsharp]

The FL-839 filter is used on a lot of the older Nissans too. The only thing I see about it that's unique is that it has no bypass valve. Maybe that's why I've never seen one in any Walmart. I tried to buy one at Advance Auto but it needed to be ordered so I picked up a Purolator L-24457 instead. If you want to wait a couple of days any Advance Auto Parts store can get the Motorcraft filter.

The construction of the Purolator should be identical to the Motorcraft other than the possiblity of the media being slightly different. I've yet to cut them apart to compare.

 

[TallPaul]

quote:

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Originally posted by jsharp:
The construction of the Purolator should be identical to the Motorcraft other than the possiblity of the media being slightly different. I've yet to cut them apart to compare.

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And in some cases (FL-1A for example) the bypass valve is in the bottom of the Purolator can. Still a good filter though.

 

[penzdude]

jsharp, from what i understand, the motorcrafts are premium plus shells w/ pure one elements. probably a little better filteration than a standard puro, but also possibly more restrictive to boot. penz

 

[jsharp]

quote:

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Originally posted by TallPaul:

quote:

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Originally posted by jsharp:
The construction of the Purolator should be identical to the Motorcraft other than the possiblity of the media being slightly different. I've yet to cut them apart to compare.

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And in some cases (FL-1A for example) the bypass valve is in the bottom of the Purolator can. Still a good filter though.

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I know the different locations of the bypass valves for Ford applications. I use the FL1A on two vehicles and think they're a great filter for $2.77 at Walmart. The FL-839 has no bypass valve though which is why I think in this case they're probably almost identical...

 

[jsharp]

quote:

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Originally posted by penzdude:
jsharp, from what i understand, the motorcrafts are premium plus shells w/ pure one elements. probably a little better filteration than a standard puro, but also possibly more restrictive to boot. penz

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I think this is the conventionl wisdom since the first filter cutaway studies appeared.

I'm sure I've seen a post somewhere though from a person who wrote to Purolator and asked them about the media. The statement from Purolator was that Ford specified the media used in the Motorcraft filters and it is different than the Pure One.

I've got a Pure One and an FL1A here, I've just not cut them apart to compare the media...

 

[TallPaul]

quote:

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Originally posted by jsharp:
The FL-839 has no bypass valve though which is why I think in this case they're probably almost identical...

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OK, good point. And on a Mercury, though I believe the Villager is essentially a rebadged Nissan.

I suspect the Motorcraft element is closer to that of the Premium Plus, but would be curious to find out exactly how it compares to the Purolators.

 

[jsharp]

quote:

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Originally posted by TallPaul:

quote:

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Originally posted by jsharp:
The FL-839 has no bypass valve though which is why I think in this case they're probably almost identical...

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OK, good point. And on a Mercury, though I believe the Villager is essentially a rebadged Nissan.

I suspect the Motorcraft element is closer to that of the Premium Plus, but would be curious to find out exactly how it compares to the Purolators.

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Yes, the Villager is a Nissan Quest.

I'm starting to think that Ford messes around with the media more than most companies and that it's not just different from the standard media used by Purolator, but that it's different from one filter part number to the next.

I say that because in grease's tests the Motorcraft media didn't look so good on filtration. But maybe a year back, someone posted some oil particle counts after using an FL1A and a couple of other filters and the FL1A looked very good.

The discrepancy makes me wonder if the media is different from one Motorcraft filter part number to the next...

[ January 07, 2005, 10:08 AM: Message edited by: jsharp ]

 

[haley10]

quote:

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Originally posted by TallPaul:

quote:

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Originally posted by jsharp:
The FL-839 has no bypass valve though which is why I think in this case they're probably almost identical...

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OK, good point. And on a Mercury, though I believe the Villager is essentially a rebadged Nissan.

I suspect the Motorcraft element is closer to that of the Premium Plus, but would be curious to find out exactly how it compares to the Purolators.

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In previous model years (not now) the Nissan Quest was actually manufactured in a Ford Motor Co. plant for Nissan. Nissan now has there own manufacturing capabilities.

The Mazda truck are also re-badged Ford Ranger.

 

[TallPaul]

quote:

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Originally posted by jsharp:
The discrepancy makes me wonder if the media is different from one Motorcraft filter part number to the next...

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Would be interesting to get the specifications for all the different Motorcrafts, but I don't think they list them at the website.

quote:

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Originally posted by haley10:
...The Mazda truck are also re-badged Ford Ranger.

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I remember the Ford Courier pickup from the 70's, which was a rebadged Mazda.