Purolator still considered not so great?

I agree. If its good enough for the manufacturer than it should at least be functionally adequate. Oil filter recalls do not come around very often.

There could also be a correlation between the low filtration standard of the denso filter versus the quick flow required for an engine that is constantly restarting. A filter with higher filtration may delay the oil pressure upon initiation of these frequent cycles.

I think the most important thing to consider is if you are going to use an aftermarket filter, use one that is better, not worse.

 

agreed, but how would you know? i'm surprised the oil testing labs don't get into it.

 

Theres alot of rebranding going on in the filter and oil business, so testing their own filters would uncover alot of secrets that the industry doesn't want to be readily available. And all of the oil brand filters are manufactured by other manufacturers.

 

I recently switched to a purolator oil filter after having a bosch one on before that. When I researched oil a couple years ago the purolator oil filters and mobil 1 stuff was on top. The mobil 1 oil is supposed to be really good as well.

I don't know if that's still the case, and it probably varies manufacturer to manufacturer, but right now I'm using purolator filters and penzoil platinum oil. I managed to get them on sale so I bought a few.

It would be cool to see a fine grain analysis on what actually works best.

 

Just sayin....
Prime eligible.

 

Thats the internal filter for the 3rd gen. The 2nd gen has an external spin on filter, with many more features to consider than the simple filter media itself.

 

FWIW... I hope we've learned some lessons by now. "Good enough for the manufacturer"... turned out to be not so true.

Here's an amazing series of tests. Toyota filters come out looking truly awful -- they hardly remove anything from the oil.

 

Yikes, all I've ever used is toyota filters. Will look into this. Not sure how all these trade-off numbers correllate though, what's the sweet-spot, the best overall??

Here's a pdf of the final chart:

 

I made a spreadsheet to check their rankings. It's pretty simple:

• They list the weight of each column (50/20/20/10 percent)
• Sum: (Position * Weight) -> score
• lowest score wins.

I tried to force Toyota to a better score (their filter has high flow when hot, and crazy high "capacity" (ie you can pass a huge amount of crud through without clogging... OF COURSE: because it doesn't actually filter much of anything?!!!)...
...even when I did that, Purolator Boss came out much better.

I too bought a Toyota OEM element. Then discovered my 2011 had been converted to the solid canister so I had to return it anyway. This time around I bought the high end Fram... but I will be looking for the Purolator Boss i think...

 

The head frame on the YouTube could be interpreted a few different ways.

--> Use Toyota filters. That way all the carbon gets suspended in the oil and comes out at the next oil change, unlike the Bosch, which obviously allowed all that junk to stay inside the engine.

Well, that's a neat idea and it is potentially supported by the photo frame on the youtube. But I'm not seriously suggesting that it is true.

On the other hand, I didn't see a mess of carbon in the guts of the Bosch filter... so where was it?

I still buy more or less whatever Rock Auto is pushing at the $3.50/ea level. Lately that's an AC Delco PF1233.

 

Huh?
The whole purpose of an oil filter is to remove contaminants. Otherwise, why bother?
These tests introduce (not carbon but dust) contaminants in measured amounts and sizes, that are then lab-tested for presence after the test, to see how much gunk is in the oil. AFAIK, every such test says a lot of stuff in the oil is worse than a little.

AFAIK, we're not talking a lot of material in most cases. Watch some of the other test videos in the series. Some of them show a LOT of goop after the test.

 

What I'm thinking right now is: we're typically changing oil (and filters) every 5,000 miles to be safe. Since that's well below the rated lifetime / normal capacity of the better filters, I'm not concerned about a filter clogging up before the next oil change.

Hmmm... one cautionary note, based on a related real-life experience. We used to live out in the countryside, with water from a deep well. It was good water, needing only minimal processing. I typically used a 10 micron whole-house water filter. It was pretty obvious when the filter was clogged, because delivered water pressure/volume dropped over time.

However, once or twice, the water pressure dropped precipitously. Going to change out the water filter, I discovered the entire canister was filled with clay-type sludge. We're talking a pound or so! A total cloggy mess. Somehow that clay had pushed into the water well and gunked up the filter. (Yuck)

With that in mind, I wonder what conditions could cause my oil to suddenly gain a lot of contaminants?

• I know going through a dust storm (we did that recently) can clog the air filter. Could it do the same to oil?
• Do driving conditions affect this? (eg In town stop-and-go vs highway; short vs long trips; cold vs hot; low vs high humidity; etc?)

 

If it wasn't clear from my prior post, I was being completely facetious about the idea that the Bosch filter was better than the Toyota filter. (though from a technical standpoint I don't really care if contaminants leave my engine suspended in a filter or suspended in oil, as long as they leave.)

Mostly it was a commentary on the head frame. I do understand that most YouTube presenters make up head frames that wildly exaggerate their claims and create a lot of false drama, some even spend their whole video debunking something they've accidentally promoted. And sometimes it isn't accidental.

I'm not trying to diminish anything in the video itself.

--

The only clog situation I've ever personally witnessed in an automotive oiling system was a 2.1L Volkswagen van engine. Like most other engines with pressurized lubrication, that one has a relief valve to prevent the oil pressure from going too high in the event of a clog. Except it was a little undersized for some circumstances.

With thick enough oil, a cold enough morning and a good Mann™ filter under there, you could pop the can. Not a true clog, just that the relief valve passage was a little too small or the valve too heavily sprung to prevent burst filters.

Regarding sudden changes in contamination- I'd consider periodic moisture content as a mechanism to study. Sometimes your oil is dry, sometimes it is wet. That changes what you can dissolve or emulsify in it at any given moment.

 

Interesting... never used to pay much attention to all of this. Now that we've invested in a new engine, I'd like to keep it running well as long as possible.

 

I was idly wondering about the delivery service connection.

Purolator Inc. - Wikipedia.

 

Interesting! As a result, I looked up the oil filter story... They *invented* the oil filter?!
Purolator | About Us | 100 Years of Purifying your world

AND... another little surprise at the bottom of that page: "Copyright 2023 by MANN+HUMMEL Purolator Filters LLC. All rights reserved."... Purolator is part of the "Mann+Hummel Group"

So they make Mann filters as well (or vice versa )