Oil Filter mystery.

[Coyote Chris]

Its no secret that Subaru of America and American Honda with corporate blessing have their own line of OEM marked oil filters, made by /Honeywell Fram in the US. But every car that comes into the country has a Japanese made Subaru filter and I assume every Honda that is imported comes with a Honda of Japan filter. You can buy both flavors in the US on ebay and the Japan filters use less cardboard and more steel.

So out of curiosity, I took off my dealer installed American Honda filter on my 2004 CRV and changed the oil after 3,200 miles....the oil was used but not bad looking and was a year old. The car is used as a winter car and a backup. I then cut open the Fram and as you would expect, used oil came out but boy was it BLACK. so I want to make sure I understand how a filter is supposed to work.

IMHO, oil comes in the little holes and pushes past the anti drain back valve (the orange rubber) and passes through the cardboard pleats and out to the engine through the center hole. If the filter would become clogged, or it is just cold, the oil would push open the bypass valve (left) and get to the engine without going through the filter. IIRC some engines also have a bypass valve in the block. So how do you explain coal black oil trapped in the filter?

 

[ST1100Y]

So how do you explain coal black oil trapped in the filter?

... the media did its job...

 

[mikesim]

I would think that the oil found in the filter would be representative of the oil found in the engine. The coal black appearance indicates that the detergent additives in the oil are doing their job. The grunge should be sequestered in the media. If you take a magnifier, jewelers loupe or hand held optical comparator, you can see the the larger particles.

Mike

 

[Coyote Chris]

I would think that the oil found in the filter would be representative of the oil found in the engine. The coal black appearance indicates that the detergent additives in the oil are doing their job. The grunge should be sequestered in the media. If you take a magnifier, jewelers loupe or hand held optical comparator, you can see the the larger particles.

Mike

Yeah, that is the mystery. This engine has always been easy on the oil. I usually over the 21 years had it replaced every 6 months. Then, I started doing one of the changes myself once the car became a secondary vehicle. This is the first time it very went a year without changing. I pulled the drain plug, looked at the oil in the pan as usual, and poured it into a funnel and into an old bottle for recycling. Nothing unusual. Dirty but very far from black which is what I would suspect from 3200. Then, to my surprise, I started hack sawing the filter open. I collected the oil in a big white used yogart container. In aircraft mechanic school we used a filter cutter, inspected the element for particles, even sent off an oil sample to a lab.
In this video, we see at 8 min 30 seconds to 14 min what cheep garbage the fram made subaru filters are. Note the decomposing fiberboard endcaps of the Fram filter. (You see the same thing in my pic of the Honda Fram filter.)

Going to run these checks as time goes by if the 2015 Subaru lives. Normally, I change its oil every 3 months as she drives 20k a year. Hopefully, the Honda lives too and I will see what the filter oil looks like again.

 

[mikesim]

You can spend hours diving down the oil/filter rabbit hole. Years ago, (before You Tube) I did the exact same thing this gentleman did except in somewhat greater detail. I found that you pretty much get what you pay for in oil filters to a point. The Fram/Wal-Mart filters are cheap for a reason. They will perform adequately if that's all you want. If you want superior protection, you have to spend a bit more, but the video should convince you than when you spend much more for the K&N, Mobil 1, and Royal Purple you really aren't gaining much. It has been my experience that time after time over the years the Wix filters are a superior product at a reasonable price. They aren't afraid to get down and dirty on the technical side if that's what you desire. Their filtration website is far superior to any of their competitors, they publish the engineering details of their products and invite comparison.

Mike

 

[Coyote Chris]

You can spend hours diving down the oil/filter rabbit hole. Years ago, (before You Tube) I did the exact same thing this gentleman did except in somewhat greater detail. I found that you pretty much get what you pay for in oil filters to a point. The Fram/Wal-Mart filters are cheap for a reason. They will perform adequately if that's all you want. If you want superior protection, you have to spend a bit more, but the video should convince you than when you spend much more for the K&N, Mobil 1, and Royal Purple you really aren't gaining much. It has been my experience that time after time over the years the Wix filters are a superior product at a reasonable price. They aren't afraid to get down and dirty on the technical side if that's what you desire. Their filtration website is far superior to any of their competitors, they publish the engineering details of their products and invite comparison.

Mike

Remind me to tell you about my fake subaru filter story and what it did to my car.
Thanks to Subaru Kenya and others.