NAPA Silver Oil Filter With Loose Internals

[rpn453]

A friend of mine recently used a NAPA Silver on his '03 Mazda Tribute and when he removed it he could feel the internals rattling around. He had another NAPA Silver so he used it with the same end result when the next oil change came around. He cut them apart and determined that the filter internals were probably held together by a piece of compressed rubber instead of the coil spring they used to have. He showed them to me and that's what I assumed as well, as there was no coil or leaf spring.

Do they use this design with all of NAPA's lower end filters? Does the Gold filter still have a coil spring? Has anybody cut one of these open lately or had similar problems?

 

[ThirdeYe]

It's probably not the same part number, but here's a Napa ProSelect I cut open from my mom's 2003 Malibu. I don't think they sell the Silver filters here anymore. Maybe they still do in Canada. Our lower end filter here is the ProSelect. Had about 3,000 miles on it at the time, used throughout the winter:

 

[exranger06]

The ProSelect is the same thing as a Silver. They just changed the name. Maybe yours failed because it was really old? (degradation over time, old design flaw that was later corrected) I believe Napa changed the name to ProSelect quite a few years ago, so your filter probably was very old.

 

[rpn453]

I don't even remember if it was labeled a ProSelect or a Silver. I should have paid more attention and grabbed some pics at the time. All I know is that it wasn't the standard coil spring design as in ThirdeYe's pics.

 

[Drew99GT]

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubb...rue#Post1004791

I cut a Proselect open and it in fact does have a rubber combination bypass valve/anti drainback valve. But that and the filter element are also held together with a coil spring - all Wix made filters seem to be.

The rubber combo valve gives me a bit of pause, but when I cut the filter open, the spring pressure was so tight the top part of the can literally popped off. Very solidly built.

 

[rpn453]

Drew99GT, thanks for the link. I believe that is the design I'm talking about, except there was no coil spring. I was too shocked to even notice that there's also less filter media than with other designs! Maybe they were defective filters where the spring got left out somehow? You'd think the internals would be rattling right from new if that were the case though.

My friend is now using Mazda filters. The NAPA Silver/ProSelect used to be our favorite low-cost filter, but it's hard to trust them after that happened.

 

[Dyoel182]

Originally Posted By: rpn453
Maybe they were defective filters where the spring got left out somehow? You'd think the internals would be rattling right from new if that were the case though.


Just because it didnt have a coil spring does not mean they forgot the spring.

 

[Drew99GT]

In the design of the filter I posted above, if there was no coil spring, it would be blatantly obvious. Beyond rattling - more like clunking cause everything inside wouldn't be held together.