I remember in the mid 2000s and early 2010s there were a bunch of oil filter tests by bloggers, auto enthusiast websites, and on YouTube channels that compared and contrasted many major brand oil filters by cutting them open and analyzing the amount of filtration media through unraveling it and measuring square footage, counting the number of pleats in the media, analyzing the overall strength and durability of the filtration media, comparing micron ratings, measuring the effectiveness of anti-drainback valves, etc.
I remember FRAM filters consistently tested towards the bottom, and were frequently the worst filters on the list. Here lately FRAM has a multi million dollar advertising campaign active, and I've seen many members of BITOG replying to "what filter should I use" threads with suggestions of FRAM filters. Has FRAM really changed that much or have the advertising campaigns just done their job?
As a relevant side note, I can think of 2 engine builders in my area who to this day will refuse to so much as touch a FRAM filter due to experiences with tearing down multiple motors that had used FRAM filters their whole lives and found them to be excessively sludgy and sometimes even have bits of filter media collecting in the oil galleries like the filters had started to break down. These incidents happened around the same time that FRAM filters were testing badly in amateur "real world" tests.
Also as a relevant side note, to this day O'Reilly Auto Parts keep FRAM filters on the bottom shelf of their stores, and they use the "liquor store" method of categorizing, I. E. the higher up you go on a shelf, the higher the quality the item is supposed to be. Mobil 1 and K&N filters are way up high and FRAM is on the very bottom, even below the cheapo economy store brand filters.
So again, has FRAM done some R&D and improved their filters, or has just the perception changed through millions of ad dollars?
Not trying to smack talk a product. I'm just genuinely interested why FRAM has gone from a laughing stock to something people are recommending, at least from what I've observed lately.
What's the Skinny on Modern FRAM Filters?
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It appears they decided to stay in business. Competition does strange things when it involves big money.
I think when a company needs to continue growing a smart company does their research and I'm sure someone stumbled across the cut open pictures and bickering here as well as the market started offering more premium filters for extended OCI's as more mainstream and then decided to do something about it. Like Fram Ultra.
Sure there is still their Orange Can's of Death (Or so it's called) economy filter but they needed to step it up with regards to all the premium filters on the market so as to not loose market share.
They have enormous buying power and can leverage an excellent price on raw materials which is why the Fram Ultra is a heck of a filter but at a decent price.
Just my $0.02 on it...
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If you perform a search in the oil filter section you will find tons of information about this. FRAM has definitely improved their quality and the Ultra is one of the best, if not the best filter, for the money on the market these days.
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..... 
It would seem as a new member you may be misinformed about the quality of Fram oil filters. As to the testimony of your two "mechanic" friends, how do they know that the two cars they evaluated were not grossly neglected regarding their oil changes? How do they know the Fram filters failed prematurely and were not left on for too long? I am unaware of any posts in this forum that have documented even one Fram oil filter failure, while there have been 50+ reports of torn Purolator oil filters.
It seems that most of what you are relying on is urban legend. And I don't give two hoots about how ORLY lays out its shelves. AA has stopped carrying Quaker State. I guess their oil must be bad.
Fram is great, Puro is bad and that's basically it.
Fram started building the Xtended Guard, now known as the Ultra; Purolator responded by building filters that tore their media and chewed up their ADBVs due to non-existent base plate deburring-and made it worse by refusing to respond to any customer service requests. There are other quality producers other than Fram-such as Fleetguard, Royal Purple, Donaldson, and Wix-but none of them offer a filter as good as the Ultra for such a low price.
I used to run Fram's orange filters as they were cheaper than any other I could get locally for my truck. Since it doesn't do much mileage per year, I didn't really care.
I now use Motorcraft filters on it. For two reasons : I can get it cheaper online despite adding shipping and the poor currency exchange rate compared to a local buy and it's a little shorter than the PH3600 I ran on it for years, making it a bit easier to install.
If the price was the same, I wouldn't bother and would have kept using Xtra Guard. If I ran high miles yearly on this truck, I would have chosen another however.
Originally Posted By: NormanBuntz
It would seem as a new member you may be misinformed about the quality of Fram oil filters. As to the testimony of your two "mechanic" friends, how do they know that the two cars they evaluated were not grossly neglected regarding their oil changes? How do they know the Fram filters failed prematurely and were not left on for too long? I am unaware of any posts in this forum that have documented even one Fram oil filter failure, while there have been 50+ reports of torn Purolator oil filters.
It seems that most of what you are relying on is urban legend. And I don't give two hoots about how ORLY lays out its shelves. AA has stopped carrying Quaker State. I guess their oil must be bad.
The skinny is Fram Ultra is the only Fram worth buying.
Originally Posted By: PimTac
Isn’t this the second or third thread on this exact subject in the last week?
Originally Posted By: demarpaint
Originally Posted By: NormanBuntz
It would seem as a new member you may be misinformed about the quality of Fram oil filters. As to the testimony of your two "mechanic" friends, how do they know that the two cars they evaluated were not grossly neglected regarding their oil changes? How do they know the Fram filters failed prematurely and were not left on for too long? I am unaware of any posts in this forum that have documented even one Fram oil filter failure, while there have been 50+ reports of torn Purolator oil filters.
It seems that most of what you are relying on is urban legend. And I don't give two hoots about how ORLY lays out its shelves. AA has stopped carrying Quaker State. I guess their oil must be bad.
Originally Posted By: StevieC
Originally Posted By: PimTac
Isn’t this the second or third thread on this exact subject in the last week?
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Way back in the 1990's Consumer reports commisioned tests on many leading brands of oil filters.
They didn't measure the area of filter media, look at how they were constructed etc.
What they did was measure the filtering efficiency of the various filters, in particular how well they blocked particles greater the 20 microns.
Fram did at least as well as any, in fact some much lauded and expensive brands performed very badly.
Most U tube videos decrying Fram have been somebody taking apart a filter ans saying "Look at this rubbish" with the filter never going near an engine.
Plenty of engine failures have been blamed on bad filters, when in fact the blame lie with a combination of neglected maintenance and abuse.
If you maintain your car properly, in articular changing the oil and filter on schedule, you could probably fit any popular brand filter and never have a moments concern about it.
Occasionally a defective filter will pass QC, whatever it may be for. Aftermarket car parts will have much less stringent standards than parts for passenger aircraft or medical equipment, but all manufacturers have a QC system.
If Fram is the market leader then it follows that there will be more Fram failures than other brands if they are of equal quality.
If Fram were so dreadful as many car forums suggst they would have gone out of business long ago.
Claud.
+1 Claud - there is much truth in this post. I would add some manufacturers have poor designs on some part numbers and inconsistent quality controls. Keeping on schedule may keep those from the fail list.
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