I changed my Mom's oil today. The car is a 2008 Cobalt LT with the Ecotech engine. The oil, Q-Torquepower 5W30, is the winter change and had just over 8K miles of use (18% on OLM).
My mom is 71 and drives very mildly with 50-50 use.
When I pulled the filter out for replacement, I discovered a hole in the pleats of the ST9018 filter. I have always been a proponent of Supertech oil and filters for many years. I am very disappointed to find this! Not only was there a hole, but the media was very brittle and the pleats easily pulled from the endcaps.
I've always thought that the Champ labs filters wouldn't have a problem running to 8-10 OCI. I've never had an issue before. One thing I discovered though, was that the filter I removed was made in Korea and had different construction than the Made in USA model. The endcaps on the USA model are bigger and offer more support and the media seems to be "stout". I think Champ labs cheapened out a bit and put this filter on a diet. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be up to snuff. I stopped at Walmart today and search through the boxes only to pick up the last "Made in USA" filter for next time. After that, I think I'm going to try NAPA.
Yep, that's my finger poking through the hole in the media.
My mom is 71 and drives very mildly with 50-50 use.
When I pulled the filter out for replacement, I discovered a hole in the pleats of the ST9018 filter. I have always been a proponent of Supertech oil and filters for many years. I am very disappointed to find this! Not only was there a hole, but the media was very brittle and the pleats easily pulled from the endcaps.
I've always thought that the Champ labs filters wouldn't have a problem running to 8-10 OCI. I've never had an issue before. One thing I discovered though, was that the filter I removed was made in Korea and had different construction than the Made in USA model. The endcaps on the USA model are bigger and offer more support and the media seems to be "stout". I think Champ labs cheapened out a bit and put this filter on a diet. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be up to snuff. I stopped at Walmart today and search through the boxes only to pick up the last "Made in USA" filter for next time. After that, I think I'm going to try NAPA.
Yep, that's my finger poking through the hole in the media.