Recently, i have gone to almost all the local stores around me in search of a decent air filter for a 92-95 civic.
I went to pepboys and looked at purolator, kragen and walmart and looked at fram, and autozone and looked at stp.
It seems that many of the filters from stp are actually good in construction, and are 3rd party'd. A filter for a 99 audi A6 is from the UK for example, and has many pleats like that of mann/hengst. This filter was $14.99.
An stp filter for a 92-95 civic ($8.50) is made in usa (at least the one I got), and had the most pleats out of fram or purolator (the fram and purolator I looked at were made in mexico). I should also note that this particular stp filter had the most uniform pleats unlike the fram and purolator which had buckles and deformation in some of the pleats. The fram/purolator appeared to have a slightly thicker media than the stp.
Although walmart carries fram for pretty cheap, only some of the frams are third party'd and of the better build. For this reason, I wouldn't hesitate to take a look at stp filters based on my findings, even though the price is a bit on the high side compared to walmart fram prices.
Based on the notion that the more pleats the better in terms of an air filter, you may have to look around between stp, fram and purolator (and wix/napa). For the '91 previa van that I take care of, I went with a purolator because it was a)cheaper than a fram and b)had more pleats than fram. The stp was out of stock when i got the filter about 5 months ago, so i didn't have a chance to compare this. Of course, the factory filter can be quite good as well, but most of the time costs the most.
If i get a chance to take a picture of the civic filter, i'll update this post.
I went to pepboys and looked at purolator, kragen and walmart and looked at fram, and autozone and looked at stp.
It seems that many of the filters from stp are actually good in construction, and are 3rd party'd. A filter for a 99 audi A6 is from the UK for example, and has many pleats like that of mann/hengst. This filter was $14.99.
An stp filter for a 92-95 civic ($8.50) is made in usa (at least the one I got), and had the most pleats out of fram or purolator (the fram and purolator I looked at were made in mexico). I should also note that this particular stp filter had the most uniform pleats unlike the fram and purolator which had buckles and deformation in some of the pleats. The fram/purolator appeared to have a slightly thicker media than the stp.
Although walmart carries fram for pretty cheap, only some of the frams are third party'd and of the better build. For this reason, I wouldn't hesitate to take a look at stp filters based on my findings, even though the price is a bit on the high side compared to walmart fram prices.
Based on the notion that the more pleats the better in terms of an air filter, you may have to look around between stp, fram and purolator (and wix/napa). For the '91 previa van that I take care of, I went with a purolator because it was a)cheaper than a fram and b)had more pleats than fram. The stp was out of stock when i got the filter about 5 months ago, so i didn't have a chance to compare this. Of course, the factory filter can be quite good as well, but most of the time costs the most.
If i get a chance to take a picture of the civic filter, i'll update this post.
