Motorcraft FL-2021 and Fram PH5618 are the same filter

[ssmokn]

I posted the subject above many months back and I was accused of jumping to conclusions. I found this funny since I was looking at the filters and sombody else that was looking at their keyboard figured they knew better. I found the subject in a search but the board software said the thread was no longer available.

Many months back I went to get some filters for a Jaguar S-Type Sport Package 4.0 V8 that I picked up for my wife.

The Jaguar dealer sold me a Motorcraft FL-2021 filter. Upon inspection it didn't seem like the usual qualify Motorcraft (Purolator filter). I was in Wallyworld a few days later and looked at the equivalent PH5618 filter. They looked identical to me -- one being orange and the other white. I purchased the PH5618.

I just changed the oil again today (wife doesn't drive it in the winter and only commutes a few miles a day so it takes a while to rack up miles on this car). I cut open the FL-2021 that I saved and the PH5618 that I removed today. They are both identical and definitely Fram right down to the cardboard endcaps.

I would have stuck with the Motocraft but since I'm not a Fram fan (I only bought one for this experiment and I ended up with two -- on rebranded as Motorcraft) I have since purchased several Purolator L15317. Interestingly enough this filter is made in Germany and it looks like a Mann to me. Purolator actually has a sticker over another name. Looks like a quality filter.

I'm sticking with the L15317 and I dropped in 7 quarts of GC OW30.

Anyway. I said I would report back once I used and cut up both the FL-2021 and the PH5618 so here I am....

 

[wavinwayne]

Did you take pitures; Can you post them? We need to see this. A Fram re-badged as a Motorcraft?......it's blaspemy, I tell ya.

 

[ssmokn]

I think you realize this but just to clarify I'm NOT saying all Motorcrafts are Frams but rather just this one number (FL-2021). I would imagine that there probably aren't a big demand for this filter. Purolator doesn't even make the one they sell (but it is nice quality).

I didn't take pictures. I didn't think there was much point. They were EXACTLY the same except for the color of the can.

 

[wavinwayne]

I'm not going to be able to sleep well tonight after this. I'll be having nightmares that my Motorcraft filters are just Fram clones..........NO....NO.....NO!!!!!!


p.s. yes, I do realize we are only talking about THIS PARTICULAR MC filter....not all of them.

 

[labman]

The way things are going, I can't imagine running anything without cutting them apart frequently except the naked cartridge filter elements out of my Ecotec.

 

[wavinwayne]

quote:

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Originally posted by labman:
The way things are going, I can't imagine running anything without cutting them apart frequently....

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I agree 100%.

 

[ssmokn]

Better yet find something you like and buy a bunch of them. That way if they decide to change you have the good stuff at least until you run out.

 

[labman]

quote:

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Originally posted by ssmokn:
Better yet find something you like and buy a bunch of them. That way if they decide to change you have the good stuff at least until you run out.

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Don't you wish you had some of those great 70's rustbuckets with points and carburators?