Ive used Fram and still do. I will buy whats on sale though. I do not cheap out on oil though. Royal Purple is throughout my truck and in my bike.

The way I see it is this, if my engine is sheding metal particles and flakes, a good filter will only extended the life of the engine slightly anyway. Either way, if the engine is going south, its going south. Nothing will prevent that. While both lubrication and filtration are key factors, my belief is lubrication is more important of the two.

 

I've got nothing but respect for ya, weed.. however, I'd figure highly likely that if you were one of the fellas with the Fram failed drain back valves, you'd be thinkin differently..

Not that it happened to me, either.. but I have heard accounts of it from folks who did have issues..

Fram, as it turns out, seems to spend more money on lawyers and marketing than making a decent product that speaks for itself.. seems too common with a lot of companies.. the whole saga surrounding that situation was enough to turn me against them forever..

 

Dont get me wrong, i used Fram because my dad dill for as long as I can remember. The only issue Ive ever had with any oil filter was the rubber square cut gasket not coming off with the filter and being stuck to the block.

That happened ONCE.

The result was the new filter being double gasket-ed sprang a leak quick, resulted in a huge mess on the shop floor. It only took that ONE time for me to make sure I had the old gasket off

 

Fram is what ve always used but with the horror stories i dont want to become a statistic.lol

 

There have been several independent lab tests that have shown that frams are not particularly good. Here is a link to one http://minimopar.knizefamily.net/oilfilters/index.html . I think that fram has come out with a new filter recently though that is not awful, I can't remember the name. Seems like plenty of other filters such as napa silver/gold (which is a wix), mobil-1, mopar are better at only a few $ more. Maybe it doesn't make that much of a difference but for a couple bucks i'd rather have something that has been proven to be better at filtering crap out of my oil.

 

Exactly ill risk a couple of extra bucks to know my trucks ok

 

A dude I work with bought a brand spanking new motor for his yj, and carried it over to a buddy of his to install.. all went well..

He drove it to work and noticed it was running hotter than it should, so he pulled into a poh dunk garage on his way home.. turns out he was in need of a good burp and some added coolant.. that taken care of, he had the poh dunk joint change the oil and filter, and asked them to bag the filter so he could cut it open when he got home.. he didnt get home..

They double stacked the rings, and he had a catastrophic blow out, and blew the engine.. he looked at the bagged filter while waiting for a tow, and sure enough, it was missing the gasket.. he crawled under it and saw the signs of massive leak while running at highway speed.. the poh dunk joint looked at him while he expressed his pissedoffedness like he had a horn growing out of his head, and told him it was his fault.. and it was his fault.. it was his fault on many different levels, one of which was running the motor for those crucial minutes with no oil thinking it was a wiring issue due to newly installed motor, his fault for not burping and filling properly in the first place, and mostly for trusting a poh dunk hick to care for his rig..

I'm all about using mom and pop stations, but they have to prove themselves to me first.. these fellas didn't have success in business for a reason.. the filter that was on it in the first place should not have given up the gasket so easily seeing as how there was hardly any time for it to adhere to the port, but apparently it was installed without a film of oil on it.. mark that to his fault, too..

It's the little things that cost big.. every time.. it doesn't take a rocket scientist to do things right, just someone who cares at least a little, and has basic knowledge about those little things..

In the end, he dropped a 4.0 in that thing, and an auto trans.. the engine was a cali emissions, and the harness a fed emissions.. it took them MONTHS to figure that one out.. again, attention to detail.. then, the rad blew sending coolant through his trans.. again, attention to detail and trying to squeeze by doing things inexpensive.. why not use a new rad when swapping engines? He had to swap trans...

He lifted that thing WAY up there, and ran 40's.. whoops. No slip yoke on it, he tossed a shaft.. then, snapped an axle because all the weight on those pitiful Dana 35's.. on and on it went..

About 20 grand into that build all added up he got it right.. it was one sweet jeep.. then it just sat in his driveway, accumulating 3k miles in three years.. he recently sold it for $6500..

It's hard to say how things could have went had he just burped that rad good on the original engine swap, or if he would have did his own oil change.. my thinking is this: take the time while doing preventive maintenance and regular servicing, pay attention to detail, stay away from products with known issues, and save yourself a ton of money, frustration, time, and effort in the end..

All of that could have been avoided.. every bit of it... And let's not even go into why he needed a new engine in the first place..

 

That is a scary story for Halloween lol! Good read though.

 

How many horror stories are on here about the Rams? Yet you own one? Rear different clip issues, vavle spring issues, crack dash issues, blend door issues, FCM/TIPM issues, ignition issues, tail light circuit board issues...... Do I need to continue?

I'm not trying to talk you I to using Fram. Use what you want and feel comfortable with. I'm simply trying to get you to think outside the box.

 

Friendly convo here..... But what crap would you have in your oil? If your bearings are going out and putting metal in the oil, a filter of any kind is only going to prolong things so much.

You guys know me, I'm all about buying good parts and gear.