Originally Posted By: Bronco1
Originally Posted By: WellOiled
Originally Posted By: L_Sludger
Crazy! What's going on with filters tearing these days? Its an epidemic! Its as if oil technology has advanced so our lube oils have become great, but our filters are made with poor craftsmanship and bad materials.
Many of these filters have been run too long.
This is a good point. A lot of times we seem to be matching filter life to oil life and not necessarily to long life filters, like a Fram Ultra. I've never noticed claims from many of the filters, purolator or otherwise, that they were supposed to go beyond normal, as noted in vehicle user manuals. Perhaps we are mismatching filters and oci and that it's contributing to the tears? Purely speculation, no facts
Bronco1 - I have found 2 torn FL820S filters. Both were filters from prior oil changes of unknown duration using Mobil 1.
Since this time I have run many Champ PH820 and AC Delco PF1250. I cut all the filters and make an inspection. I have not had a bad result with them for 3000-6000 mile OCI/FCI. The filters I have run 6000 miles look much better than these do.
Additionally, others have discovered torn media very early in the filter's life. This seems most likely with Purolator manufactured filters.
In my view the filter should go into bypass before media tears.
If people are going to run long, they should use a filter designed for it.