Who’s ready for a (somewhat scientific) oil filter thread?

[zed9]

[kevperro]

Oh no... anything having to do with oil always leads to anarchy.   

I always buy OEM filters and avoid anything "upgraded".    I've never worn out an engine other than maybe a top-end on dirt bikes, which being 2-strokes didn't have an oil filter.   This goes for lawnmowers and other engines that didn't even have filtration.   It always seems to be something else that kills my ride.    I think these types of videos have good entertainment value, but they don't really give enough context to be meaningful in allowing consumers to make the best purchase.    Do the same test on an array of filters for a different vehicle and you get a different ranking.    Plus, it doesn't give you contextual information about how that impacts engine longevity.     The assumption that better filtering is automatically going to change something in the service life of the engine is implied, but not correlated in a statistical way.   

So... great entertainment and I'll keep using my OEM filters.   

[zed9]

Fun fact.. Since I bought my house in 1984, I had never once bought a lawn mower.
My lawn is so small I can mow it and bag the clippings in fifteen minutes. So I have always just barrel-picked a mower, got it running and used them for years or until I saw someone throwing out something better.
But for the life of me I cannot remember ever changing the oil. I do remember adding oil if the engine seized.
However… on a total impulse buy… I bought a brand new mower three years ago. I paid $200 bucks on sale. It has a Honda engine. I think that’s what swayed me. What the hell, I deserve it.
And being my first new mower ever, I actually change the oil at the end of the season when I winterize it! I love it. Starts first pull. 👍

[kevperro]

Originally Posted by zed9

Fun fact.. Since I bought my house in 1984, I had never once bought a lawn mower.
My lawn is so small I can mow it and bag the clippings in fifteen minutes. So I have always just barrel-picked a mower, got it running and used them for years or until I saw someone throwing out something better.
But for the life of me I cannot remember ever changing the oil. I do remember adding oil if the engine seized.
However… on a total impulse buy… I bought a brand new mower three years ago. I paid $200 bucks on sale. It has a Honda engine. I think that’s what swayed me. What the hell, I deserve it.
And being my first new mower ever, I actually change the oil at the end of the season when I winterize it! I love it. Starts first pull. 👍

In our current house, I have an electric one.   I make the kids mow it (looks like what I would do with a homebrew haircut).     In the old house, I had 5 acres and we were on the side of a mountain.   I bought a Sears riding mower when we bought that property and mowing it was like riding motocross.     I had to lean way off to the side to keep it on four wheels, the holes and rocks on that property beat the hell out of the mower.    Plus I'm not a patient man when it comes to mowing grass.   I view it as something robbing me of life so I geared up and flew around beating the hell out of that thing.     I did change the oil yearly though.   LOL.....

[3alfa3]

Originally Posted by kevperro

I always buy OEM filters

Me too

[Axl]

OEM

[echo948]

I've pretty much always used HiFloFiltro.

[rcannon409]

Hondaprokev, again I find myself in agreement with you.

I learned to use OEM filters after an oil filter fell apart and messed up an expensive diesel tractor we used at the golf course.  The was in the early 80's.

The filter was a Fram we had bought at the local NAPA store.  If you guys are not in the US, NAPA is a nationwide chain who supplies auto parts as well as damn near anything else you want.

The filter was made by Fram. The company knew they had a bad batch of filters and was willing to stand behind them.  That was alarming to think they knew they had bad filters, but the quality control was so bad they didn't know which ones to pull off the shelf.


We ended up having Napa headquarters, Fram and the local NAPA store helping us rebuild a John Deere engine.  It was a mess. Any factory warranty ended after we rebuilt the engine. When they are paying for the repairs, they set the rules.  Not you.  If you don't like it, all activity stops until your lawyer can get involved. 

As Kevpro said these filters are all "good enough", and he is correct. The real question is "If the filter happens to be defective, who do I want in charge of the rebuild"?

If we had used an oem filters, this would not have happened.  Even if it did, we would have been able to go to the local John Deere dealership and let them handle it. 

This was a valuable lesson that I didn't have to pay for. I wouldn't use an aftermarket filter if they were free. Nothing to do with quality.  It's well worth paying a little more for quality control and after sale support.