Originally Posted By: Gary Allan
I'd say Fram has a good reason to produce and market the low end product in Canada. They typically are the cheapest thing going.
Not necessarily the cheapest thing going here. I remember years ago, when I had a Mazda 323, I called around for the first time for a filter, and it cost more to buy a Fram at an auto parts store than to buy an OEM Mazda filter (at the time, likely a Toyo Roki Co instead of the current Honeywell). When I did have to use a Fram due to availability, and not having to go out of my way, I remember at start up with the Fram filter, it would take longer for oil pressure to build than any other filter as the oil light would stay on for a couple of seconds.
Still, I chalked that up at the time due to the bigger Fram canister compared to OE and the way the filter sit on the engine caused the oil to drain back in.
Continued using Frams for years off and on, including their rebrands.
Fast-forward to when the internet permeated everything, and I stumbled upon the mini-Mopar site. The cut-aways, the supposed internal memo, anecdotal reports of failures of Fram filters and the fact that Frams were very similarly priced to other brands of filters lead me to re-evaluate what I put on my vehicles. Disappearing from my list were Frams, due to my perceived poor value of those, but also of many other brands.
My choices now, generally are OE, or Wix (Napa Gold), but not always. When I had by VW TDI, based on what I saw was a consensus among other owners of those vehicles, I used only OE, or one of the OE manufacturers under their own brand (Bosch, Mann, Hengst and Mahle), but not Wix in that application as they supposedly could not handle the higher oil pressure. Do I know for sure? No, but why take a chance when one I know will do the job has virtually the same price.
With my second Mazda, a Protege, I used only Wix, as OE in Canada was a Honeywell (no way of knowing if it was just a repainted orange can), and the Toyo Roki or its North American subsidiary Filtech were not easy to get in Canada.
Possibly some of the bad rap that Fram has is undeserved, but the way I see it, it can't be entirely untrue either. The cut aways don't prove that the filtration abilities of these are bad, but they do support arguments that they are poorly constructed (though not necessarily prove it).
I'm just not willing to keep using these on my engines when there are other choices available at a similar cost.
For perspective, I've also heard bad things about Syntec oil, yet with those oils, I have yet to find a convincing argument that they don't perform. In fact, quite the opposite. Maybe they aren't a class leader, but UOAs show they are perfectly fine oils. I am not necessarily swayed by an internet argument for/against a product, but give me some convincing "proof" (I know most times it's not scientific) and I'll listen.
