TONYDEE64

Ok, I've been working on cars for most of my adult life. I recently bought a 1996 Trans Am that has a 383 that dynoed at 420 rwhp. Anyway, I love this car!! But, I started to notice that my oil pressure was getting lower and lower. Pretty soon I had no more than 20psi going down the road. My first thought was that maybe I had a bad sending unit as the car seemed to run fine with no rattles, etc. Then one morning I started it up and there was virtually no oil pressure (maybe 5-10 psi), the lifters were starting to rattle ever so slightly so I immediately turned it off and put the car on a trailer. Thinking the motor was going to be coming out I took the car to a shop that had a lift (the motor comes out from the bottom). They called a few days later and said that they changed the oil filter and the car is running fine and had 50psi at idle. They said that with high volume oil pumps a fram filter does too good of a job in filtering the oil. The problem with this is that the center filter implodes upon itself with the increased volume of oil. They said to use a cheap Wicks or a Mobile 1 racing filter. The good news is that they cut my old filter open and there were no metal pieces. I have since driven the car several hundred miles and it is running perfectly. I got lucky... Maybe this is common knowledge, but since I had never heard of it I thought I would pass it along.

bogus

Fram is garbage. I am glad there wasn't any real damage.

JLeatherman

Fram oil filters are terrible. What the mechanic said was a bit misleading. The Fram doesn't do any better job filtering. The problem is that there is nothing in a Fram to keep the filter element in place. The Wix filter is not cheaper or in any way less effective at filtering, it does however have a filter element that is held in place better and therefore will not collapse onto itself. Fram filters have also been known to literally blow off of cars with HV or HP oil pumps because the casing is poorly constructed and when the element collapses the pressure buildup at the filter will blow it off of the base. Bottom line, NEVER USE A FRAM FILTER if you value your engine.

94z07fx3

Read this site. I saw either it or a similar one years ago and will never use a cardboard capped filter.

Pure One from Purolator seems to be the pick of the bunch.

RRT vette

Not the first time I have heard not to use Fram. This is why I don't use them anymore.

Corvette Kid

That's what I use and there are other good ones too. The Fram didn't collapse because it "filters too good", it collapsed because it's crap.

BerniesVette

I use Baldwin filters. Like Wix, they are made for the industrial market and their auto filters are just a rugged.
Bernie

Fubar569

I'm gonna be the standout here...

I use fram on my daily driver 97 deville with the 275hp northstar and have since i owned it. previous owner has too...no issues reported.

I used it on my crossfire powered 84 corvette with a goodwrench 350 crate motor. 255hp advertised but about ~210ish with the crossfire. Ran them during my entire ownership and again not one issue. with the big block however since i have a high volume pump i will not use them...

It seems the issues reported come from either higher pressures or a higher volume pump. Most OEM applications will not experience a FRAM failure. However as stated for extra insurance with the Big Block build i will not use them. I will be turning serious RPM's and with a high volume pump and other parts i simply would rather not have the chance of it happening...

Grease Monkey

i have one on the Vette now and when it get's changed it will be the last one

BerniesVette

During cold weather the oil will get thick and could cause the same problem as a high vol or high pressure pump.
Bernie

wilsonbh

A oil filter can fail and destroy your engine. I know, it happened to me once with a truck. It was a FRAM oil filter. I tried to get compensation from them but they just ignored my claims. Since these things are difficult to prove, it came down to my experts against FRAM's experts and FRAM refused to accept my data. Ended up costing me $2900 to get the engine fixed. The truck had 21000 miles on it when this happened and I still owed about $9K on the loan. I had no choice but to get it rebuilt.

Bob CTS

I prefer to use AC Delco on my GM cars and only AC Delco.

j-wireman

According to that Oil Filter Study on the minimopar website, the junk filter element is not the only problem with FRAMs. Turns out that the filter housing ("can") was the thinnest of all the filters tested. As a result, they seemed to fail at the seam where it joined the threaded base. That ain't good!
FRAM is overpriced garbage. They, also, make filters with other names on them. Do your homework and shop wisely.

I use Purolator and AC/Delco, exclusively.


Mike
'90 'vert

94ZR1

A worthy dupe
Fram is garbage
Not only will it collapse it will also leak dirty oil back in to the engine
Anybody who has used fram with no problem is just lucky
Like the people who knew the serial killer and said" he was a nice guy"
Just cause he didnt kill you didnt make him a nice guy. You were just lucky
Years ago the #1 beer was Pabst Blue Ribbon and in the 60s they decided to save money and cheapen the recipe
They have since gone back to the original recipe and it is really a good product but they will never be #1 again

All WIX filters seem to do well in these tests
Napa filters are WIX

crossfire7

I use Fram all the time. They work great.
It sounds like you were asking a standard type of a part to perform as a peformance part. Did you check to see if they were recommended for use with high volume oil pumps?

Would you expect a stock valve train to hold together on a performance motor? Or would the thread then read "stock valves are junk" ???

TONYDEE64

You know that is an excellent observation. In all honesty I always assumed all filters were more or less the same. I had seen the Mobile 1 race filters advertised and just figured that it was Mobile just trying to dig their hand deep into my pocket.. perhaps not.... That's what I will be using from now on....!!!!!!!

Sam Lam

Asking about what oil filter you like is similiar to asking what brand of beer do you drink! My first choice in the K&N oil filter which weighs almost twice the weight of a Fram filter. In addition, it has the anti-drain valve which keeps oil in the main bearings when the engine is not running. The Wix or NAPA Gold filters are also very good. Fram is a very cheap filter. If you disagree, just cut one open and see what you see

CentralCoaster

The only way this is possible, is if the filter blocked off nearly completely, and no oil would bypass it.

Sorry but I don't see how that happens.

Mr Mojo

So how long does it take a filter to fail as described? How long do you wait to do an oil and filter change?

193,000 miles on my truck with Fram filters and no problems at all. Oil and filter changed every 3000, and I beat the hell out of that thing as well.

85 500 horse

It's very difficult to fight a corporations' deep pockets. Unless your pockets are equally deep, you're in for a rough time. Sorry you got screwed, but you can get even by not ever purchasing another Fram filter, which I'm sure you did. After reading how Fram screwed you and the information contained in the post by "94z07fx3", my Fram filters are being returned tomorrow in exchange for A/C Delco's.