Here are four filters used for the current version Camry. Some filter manufacturers (even some “performance” brands) specify one tiny filter part # for both the Corolla and Camry. I went out in search of mfrs that had a different (larger) size spec’d for the Camry. They had to be low/moderate cost filters easily available in my area. These are the ones that I found.
Purolator L14477
Advance Auto Parts Totalgrip AA4386
NAPA Gold 1396 (Equivalent to Wix 51396)
Toyota 90915-YZZA1
Below are pictures, descriptions, measurements. I deliberately didn’t put any opinions in this initial post. I’m anxious to hear what everybody has to say. I may include my opinions along with yours- I have a few choice negative things to say about each. Unfortunately, of course, the big questions about filtering efficiency and flow resistance are unknown from this experiment.
General Comments
Purolator
The Purolator is a straightforward filter design with metal end caps and a flat spring bypass valve at the closed end of the filter. Pleats were evenly spaced except for a couple of wide ones where the element was crimped together with a metal strip. A little bit of epoxy was smeared around on one of the end caps. The box quotes “multi-fiber” media and 96% multi-pass efficiency.
AAP
It is well known that these filters are made by Purolator. Aside from the color and sandpaper-like coating of the can all components are identical to the Purolator. The only difference inside was the filter media itself. The color of the media was more yellowish than the Purolator and it was thinner and felt more compressed. The AAP Totalgrip had two more pleats than the Purolator. The pleats were evenly spaced except for a couple of wide ones where the element was crimped together with a metal strip. The box quotes 94% multi-pass efficiency.
NAPA
The NAPA filter has the bypass at the base of the filter. A coil spring is used between the can and the filter element to force the element tight against the base. The force that the coil spring exerted was significantly higher than with the stamped springs in the other filters. Because of the space taken by the bypass valve and the coil spring, the filter element is shorter than the other filters. Metal end caps are used. The NAPA pleats were fairly evenly spaced, but there were five pleats that were overly wide. The ends of the element were crimped with a metal strip against the center tube.
Toyota
The Toyota filter uses a unique pleat design. The media is folded over into six groups with pleating going all the way to the edge of the can. The element is really packed tightly into the can; it took a good tug to pull the element out. End caps are cardboard but very sturdily attached to filter media. The end caps have small notches to allow oil to enter the pleat groups.
(Toyota Pleat Design shown here
MEDIA Characteristics
Element Dimensions:
Purolator: 2.5” high x 2” diameter
AAP: Identical to Purolator
NAPA: 2” high x 2.25” diameter
Toyota: 2.5” high x 2-7/16” diameter
Pleats:
Purolator: 50 pleats; 7/16” pleat depth
AAP: 52 pleats; 7/16” pleat depth
NAPA: 50 pleats; 6/16” pleat depth
Toyota: 6 blocks of 10 pleats; approx 6/16” avg. pleat depth
Media area measured with removed from filter and stretched out (media cut as close to epoxy at end caps as possible, so width measurements slightly shorter than element height measured above)
Purolator: 104.6 sq. in. (46-1/2”x2-1/4”)
AAP: 108.6 sq. in. (48-1/4”x2-1/4”)
NAPA: 75.3 sq. in. (43”x1-3/4”)
Toyota: 135.4 sq. in. (57”x2-3/8”)
Media Thickness (very difficult to measure accurately, so just to describe)
Purolator: About 1/32”, slightly fuzzier than others
AAP: About 25% thinner than Purolator and feels somewhat more compressed
NAPA: About same thickness as Purolator,
Toyota: About 50% thicker than Purolator, with a slightly fuzzier feel than any of the others except the Purolator
Anti Drainback Valve Characteristics
Purolator and AAP are identical, only the NAPA is silicone. I put all of the ADBs in the freezer overnight at about 5 degrees F and found that the NAPA ADB did maintain its flexibility very well. The others did have a noticeable stiffness. They kind of lost some of their springiness and were slightly slower to return to their original shape than at room temperature.
The NAPA ADB has some ridges embossed on its upper surface, these are to provide a gap so that oil can flow through the bypass valve if necessary.
(Purolator/AAP ADB
(NAPA ADB
(Toyota ADB
Bypass
Purolator: The bypass uses a metal disk attached by a flat spring to the metal end cap at the closed end of the filter. Excess pressure will force the metal disk downward and allow oil to flow into the center tube. Purolator specifies the bypass pressure to be 14-18 PSI on this filter. Pushing down on the disk required a great deal more force than on the other designs and the opening created by doing so was very narrow.
AAP: Identical design to Purolator, I have no factory specs on the bypass pressure. Force required to push down on the valve by hand seemed identical to Purolator.
NAPA: The bypass valve is a separate module at the base of the filter. A ring of holes facing downward toward the inlet holes is backed by a rubber gasket in front of a metal disk. The disk is held down by a coil spring. If the pressure limit is exceeded, the disk is forced up, allowing oil to flow through directly to the outlet hole. With this design oil does not have to wash over the dirty side of the media to exit the filter like for the other designs where the bypass is on the closed end of the filter. Bypass pressure is specified as 8-11 PSI and the bypass was considerably easier to open by hand than with the Purolator/AAP. The opening area is also much larger than for the Purolator/AAP.
Toyota: Toyota uses exactly the same style of bypass as the Purolator/AAP. Due to the cardboard end-caps, a metal cap piece in the filter contains the bypass valve. Toyota specifies the bypass pressure as 14.3 PSI. Pushing in the bypass by hand required much less force than the Purolator/AAP, but it was still difficult to get the disk pushed down far enough for other than a very narrow opening.
[ September 08, 2005, 08:35 PM: Message edited by: kanling ]
Purolator L14477
Advance Auto Parts Totalgrip AA4386
NAPA Gold 1396 (Equivalent to Wix 51396)
Toyota 90915-YZZA1
Below are pictures, descriptions, measurements. I deliberately didn’t put any opinions in this initial post. I’m anxious to hear what everybody has to say. I may include my opinions along with yours- I have a few choice negative things to say about each. Unfortunately, of course, the big questions about filtering efficiency and flow resistance are unknown from this experiment.
General Comments
Purolator
The Purolator is a straightforward filter design with metal end caps and a flat spring bypass valve at the closed end of the filter. Pleats were evenly spaced except for a couple of wide ones where the element was crimped together with a metal strip. A little bit of epoxy was smeared around on one of the end caps. The box quotes “multi-fiber” media and 96% multi-pass efficiency.
AAP
It is well known that these filters are made by Purolator. Aside from the color and sandpaper-like coating of the can all components are identical to the Purolator. The only difference inside was the filter media itself. The color of the media was more yellowish than the Purolator and it was thinner and felt more compressed. The AAP Totalgrip had two more pleats than the Purolator. The pleats were evenly spaced except for a couple of wide ones where the element was crimped together with a metal strip. The box quotes 94% multi-pass efficiency.
NAPA
The NAPA filter has the bypass at the base of the filter. A coil spring is used between the can and the filter element to force the element tight against the base. The force that the coil spring exerted was significantly higher than with the stamped springs in the other filters. Because of the space taken by the bypass valve and the coil spring, the filter element is shorter than the other filters. Metal end caps are used. The NAPA pleats were fairly evenly spaced, but there were five pleats that were overly wide. The ends of the element were crimped with a metal strip against the center tube.
Toyota
The Toyota filter uses a unique pleat design. The media is folded over into six groups with pleating going all the way to the edge of the can. The element is really packed tightly into the can; it took a good tug to pull the element out. End caps are cardboard but very sturdily attached to filter media. The end caps have small notches to allow oil to enter the pleat groups.
(Toyota Pleat Design shown here
MEDIA Characteristics
Element Dimensions:
Purolator: 2.5” high x 2” diameter
AAP: Identical to Purolator
NAPA: 2” high x 2.25” diameter
Toyota: 2.5” high x 2-7/16” diameter
Pleats:
Purolator: 50 pleats; 7/16” pleat depth
AAP: 52 pleats; 7/16” pleat depth
NAPA: 50 pleats; 6/16” pleat depth
Toyota: 6 blocks of 10 pleats; approx 6/16” avg. pleat depth
Media area measured with removed from filter and stretched out (media cut as close to epoxy at end caps as possible, so width measurements slightly shorter than element height measured above)
Purolator: 104.6 sq. in. (46-1/2”x2-1/4”)
AAP: 108.6 sq. in. (48-1/4”x2-1/4”)
NAPA: 75.3 sq. in. (43”x1-3/4”)
Toyota: 135.4 sq. in. (57”x2-3/8”)
Media Thickness (very difficult to measure accurately, so just to describe)
Purolator: About 1/32”, slightly fuzzier than others
AAP: About 25% thinner than Purolator and feels somewhat more compressed
NAPA: About same thickness as Purolator,
Toyota: About 50% thicker than Purolator, with a slightly fuzzier feel than any of the others except the Purolator
Anti Drainback Valve Characteristics
Purolator and AAP are identical, only the NAPA is silicone. I put all of the ADBs in the freezer overnight at about 5 degrees F and found that the NAPA ADB did maintain its flexibility very well. The others did have a noticeable stiffness. They kind of lost some of their springiness and were slightly slower to return to their original shape than at room temperature.
The NAPA ADB has some ridges embossed on its upper surface, these are to provide a gap so that oil can flow through the bypass valve if necessary.
(Purolator/AAP ADB
(NAPA ADB
(Toyota ADB
Bypass
Purolator: The bypass uses a metal disk attached by a flat spring to the metal end cap at the closed end of the filter. Excess pressure will force the metal disk downward and allow oil to flow into the center tube. Purolator specifies the bypass pressure to be 14-18 PSI on this filter. Pushing down on the disk required a great deal more force than on the other designs and the opening created by doing so was very narrow.
AAP: Identical design to Purolator, I have no factory specs on the bypass pressure. Force required to push down on the valve by hand seemed identical to Purolator.
NAPA: The bypass valve is a separate module at the base of the filter. A ring of holes facing downward toward the inlet holes is backed by a rubber gasket in front of a metal disk. The disk is held down by a coil spring. If the pressure limit is exceeded, the disk is forced up, allowing oil to flow through directly to the outlet hole. With this design oil does not have to wash over the dirty side of the media to exit the filter like for the other designs where the bypass is on the closed end of the filter. Bypass pressure is specified as 8-11 PSI and the bypass was considerably easier to open by hand than with the Purolator/AAP. The opening area is also much larger than for the Purolator/AAP.
Toyota: Toyota uses exactly the same style of bypass as the Purolator/AAP. Due to the cardboard end-caps, a metal cap piece in the filter contains the bypass valve. Toyota specifies the bypass pressure as 14.3 PSI. Pushing in the bypass by hand required much less force than the Purolator/AAP, but it was still difficult to get the disk pushed down far enough for other than a very narrow opening.
[ September 08, 2005, 08:35 PM: Message edited by: kanling ]
