Fram filters nightmare story.

I've always found it comical how the big NHRA teams that Fram sponsors use their filters and the commercials brag that fact. They never mention the fact that the teams rebuild the motors after every 1/4 mile, and use new filters.

Ever taken one of the NHRA guys filters apart? wonder if its even the same internals?

 

BTTT in responce to the recent Fram question!

 

I haven't bought a Fram since the '80s. I cut one apart! Wow! Did the same to a Delco filter and decided it was Delco from then on. But, the Delco for my Ford truck I had in the '90s didn't have the anti-drainback valve in it and the truck sounded like hell everytime I started it up. From then on it's been Delco on GM and Motorcraft on Fords.

Seeing as I work in a filter factory (Cat's OEM filters) I can say the thread issue that Fat Hack mentioned is covered in our plant with a computer vision system that checks every single plate to make sure it's threaded. In an automated factory, it's actually easy to miss stuff like that since nobody touches them to check them out. Besides, at 25+ parts a minute, they all start looking alike really quick!

Tim D.

 

Yep! I lost a engine on my boat due to a FRAM! The one and only time I didn't use a AC DELCO ( there weren't any available ) Should have waited! Any way AC DELCO makes a great filter and that is what I use whenever posible. otherwise napa/wix is also good as stated.

 

I have to add one I had forgotten about, I know no one likes rice cars on here but this was a fram horror story. I used to drive an old civic with the oil pump down in the pan,driven off of the cam by a drive shaft through the engine. was forced to use a fram one time,because the other filter had developed a gasket leak, no other brand was in stock, figured i would replace it as soon as another filter came in. this wasn't a stock junk engine, this was one that i had rebuilt myself with some pretty rare racing parts. was fine for about ten miles, then right in the middle of an intersection, BAM!! and the oil warning light came on and the gauge bottomed. cost me 70 bucks to have it towed home, on teardown, the pump was locked, the pump drive shaft was twisted, and when it froze, it sheared the driven teeth off of it,and the drive teeth off of the cam. that cam was one i had custom made and it was over a half a grand. of course you can guess what i found inside of the pump. NEVER USE FRAM!!

 

yo lost,

what year civic are you talking about?

BTW, fram sucks, you dont have to sell me on it

 

81, i used to road race them, imported some non north american parts to replace the cvcc crap. these engines had a bottom of the block pump with a cam driven pump drive shaft

 

wierd....

Ive trashed a couple of CVCC cars and i have to say.....those cars are pretty tough.

i tried blowing engine....couldnt do it.

i forced the trans into 1st gear from 50MPH or so.....the tach went far right and the car bounced into a ditch.....from uncontrolable wheel hop
after i stopped laughing i knew that was a tough car

 

Ever since I've owned Dodge Cummins trucks (1997), I've run nothing but Wix in every Diesel and gas-powered vehicle, including lawn and farm equipment.

Great filters!

 

it was destroyed from a piece of fram filter in the oil pump. the pumps on those things were super close tolerance, and anything in there would cause it to lock, found a piece of string and the rest of it when i cut open the dammed filter. the motor survived once i replaced everything chewed up, i took it completly apart mostly to make sure any metal from the cam gear wasn't floating around. they used to wrap strings around the filter to slide the element into the can,then they were supposed to REMOVE the string. it really pisses you off to put a lot of work into an engine and have it ruined by something that is supposed to protect it. I was using Bosch, they used to look just like wix inside, then they started being made somewhere else and now they look like fram. Now it's Wix. Until people start caring about their engines,the general population that is, they will continue to get away with selling this garbage. you think there would be sort sort of standard they would be required to be built to if there is,they sure need t raise it, engines are getting more high tech and the filters are getting cheaper.

 

It's been a few months, so I'm bumping this back to the top for the newbies to have a look at.

 

I was driving my other hotrod and noticed some smoke, the filter had pushed the gasket out, I thought it was a fluke, now I really wonderin. I might have to switch, I've used nothing but fram filters for years with only one problem, that I know of.

 

i always run napa 2 qt oil filters on my small block chevys

 

If you don't give a damn, use a fuckin' fram...

 

only thing good aobut fram is the rough finish for grip.. that's it..

i use a remote with a replaceable element filter.

 

you can always wrap grip tape around the filter before installing it, i'm using a remote filter too now ,with a one quart wix filter.

 

Time to revisit this... I've got a 3rd fram failure on my hands!!!

Bought an O/T Mopar minivan a couple days ago with a locked up engine. It's actually in nice shape, so I figured I'd take a shot at fixing it. Slid under it and found a brand new shiney orange fram filter looking back at me.

Spun it off and looking right down into it, the rubber seal between the housing and paper element is crooked, preventing ANY oil at all from getting into the engine.

Will this madness EVER stop?

 

There have been threads on some of the motorcycle forums, both metric and V-twin with issues evolving from Fram filters.

I personally use AC-Delco and Wix on my cars, and on my '02 Harley Twin Cam a H-D oil filter. Harley Davidson used to specify a 10 micron oil filter, now the T/C uses a 5 micron filter. The Wix filter equilivent it a 19 micron, which is fine for a Evo, but not a T/C. They use complete different oiling systems. The point of this is, do some research on your own, don't take what the catalog states as gospel truth.

 

Like I've said before the AMA, WERA, and CCS all outlawed Fram filters for a while during the mid 90's. There was a problem with the threads and the filters would blow off. You don't really want an oil covered track with only two wheels down.

 

FRAM sucks,in the trucking business only use WIX and on oddball applications,Baldwin makes good filters.Fram spent more money with the bed liner shit for the grip an the filters than on inside quality and I am sick of hearing engineers claiming they had to design what they were told to,thats not an engineer,thats a dumass flunky just there for the paycheck.WIX makes a good quality line of products.

 

"If you wanna damn it.........Fram it !!""


Seriously.......I work for a big box auto store and the amout of Frams we sell is unbelievable. My ass cringes every time I see these folks check out with an oil change special with a Fram filter......I wanna warn them......but the higher ups really frown on that shit. They consider it "bad mouthing" one of our products. I call it giving a heads up. Most folks just don't know.

 

Had a fram blow off the engine and dump every bit of fresh oil out in a few seconds, wasn't my truck thankfully, but bought one years after that because that's all they had in stock and when I went to put oil in it like I usually do before I spin one on I looked inside and it looked like every bit of the steel shavings that they threaded it with was in the bottom, plus alot more. Took it back and got my money refunded and was going to write the company a letter, but never got around to it. I think the company's name was Allied?

 

I have a RAM 318 and I have an oil problem I loose a lot of oil it gets in the combustion chamber and comes out the exhaust as a thick black soot almost like a diesel and no blue smoke unless I really slam the gas I thought it was my rings but the truck doesn't feel like it lost any power it still moves pretty good. I changed my plugs and I had 2 of them with oil all over them. I have a fram filter could this be my problem or is it something else?

 

Are you running biodesiel or something to get that level of build up in your tank?

Sorry man but it sounds like you were trying to cheat out of the real issue in the tank with filters and chemicals. The filter did its job until it clogged with the tank crap and the fuel pump tore it a new one. Pick your fuel filter for the same diesel and its either plasic or thin stamped metal like in the pic. At least it held together when it imploded.

I'm not a Fram fan but Fram has been blamed for everything. Most failures (like the $3,000 race engine) are the wrong aplication or crap maintanence. Why would you trust a fiber element for a high flow high temp aplication? The design for fuel should fail closed (stop flow) and the design for oil should fail open so you dont ruin an engine for lack of oil.

I still feel for ya but the Fram bashing gets me. For a stock generic aplication they are an OK aplication. But for $0.75-2.00 more why not go with a better filter?

 

Allied Signal.

 

actually they suck period. piss poor filtering. and less than questionable quality.

sounds like the problem is way beyond the filter.

 

The sun must really be hot in norhern Nevada,really frying some brains.

 

Although it sounds like other issues, I have worked for both Wix and Baldwin Filters and have seen first hand how filters are constructed and the difference between brands, My first choice for filters is Baldwin US Made in good ol Nebraska and built Heavy Duty, Wix/NAPA would be second. I would definitely steer clear of any Fram or off brand re-box. You get what you pay for. And a good filter is cheap insurance.

 

thousands of minivans cant wrong A paper element will only take so much and a cheap one will take even less. Like somebody earlier said they arent OEM and will never be. However if Vatozone or other cheap parts places were getting sued all the time they wouldnt carry them.

I have only seen one well written and scientificly tested article on Fram failures. The rest are just bashing like 90% of the stuff in this thread.

But that is what they are made for. Not $30,000 race engines that measure rebuilds in runs instead of miles. Or hotrods that you actualy care about. For the amount of cash you put into a specialty vehicle why the hell would you skimp $2 on a critical part of your engine system?

Tech should be in a tech article and leave the personal feeling and shit talking out of it. Thats the way I like em.

So did you actualy have information to contribute?

 

Then why would they advertise on race cars?