Sherman Bird
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2019
- Posts
- 1,542
- Reaction score
- 2,300
- Location
- Houston, Texas
- Ram Year
- 1998
- Engine
- 5.2
Being a professional technician with many decades under my belt, I've gone to all kinds of industry "show and tell" regarding many products and have a lot of practical experience in the field. Inasmuch as I'm personally and professionally liable if I use a garbage filter on an engine, well, I get to fix or replace the engine on my dime. OUCH! So.... my motivation is to provide proper service with quality products which will accomplish first time accuracy for repairs and keep my customers happy. I bluntly tell my customers that they may be mad because their cost of high end parts are high and it took me more time than some high spark twitchy production shop to wham bam slam jam their car in and out in a day! But, They are NEVER mad that their vehicle is fixed correctly the first time! In the rare comeback, I DO stand behind my work and prioritize getting them taken care of.Same thing happened to me yesterday on my 2015. Was just starting a 300 mile trip and notice my oil PSI was down to about 45 while driving around 70mph (typically in low 50s). By end of trip PSI was down to 40 doing 70 mph! Was using same Fram Ultra filter you were - XG10060. Was 3,200 miles into oil change. Stopped at local Autozone and got their STP xl filter (no clue if any good) and changed out this morning. Was at 42 psi when I pulled into garage, went up to 55 once I changed and pulled out of garage. Clearly defective.
Think I'm changing to WIX from now on.
I remember going to a training meeting about oil filters a number of years ago. These people had dozens of brands and models of oil filters torn open with data for each one. Fram was the lowest quality with the cheesiest internal pieces of all of them! A friend of mine is an old time mechanic turned Automotive media person with a nationally syndicated radio show. "Let's Talk Wheels". As a matter of fact, his show is sponsored by FCA. He told me about 2 years ago about a conversation he had with one of Fram's marketing chiefs and expressed this concern about their substandard product. Said chief assured him that they had "corrected" these quality issues. A few months ago, I was watching Steve Cox on You Tube do an oil filter comparison. Steve tore open a variety of oil filters and, the Fram was still very poorly made; the worst of the bunch.
I'm not slamming Fram, just putting out there what I know and from where. I used their filters in ignorance for years prior. Today, I generally go with OE or WIX.... and Denso on Asian vehicles.