Oil Filters - not specifically a Ranger topic

[Friday yet?]

Morning Everyone! Well, probably shouldn't say "morning" since we have members from all over the globe. So let's go with "Hello!"

Went down a rabbit hole this morning while getting my caffine intake prior to starting the work day. Just spent 1 1/2 hours going from the subject of oil filters and ending up in Top Tier gasoline. Interesting reading. (Yea, I'm weird.)

Oil Filters. I'm a (shaky now) hard core Wix guy. Have been know to use Purolator if need be. Admittedly I'm late to the party, but just discovered this morning that Wix and Purolator are both owned by Mann-Hummel. Happened a couple of years ago. Who knew? And oil geeks are complaining about changes being made, including some filters being made in china. The "made in china" is really not sitting well with me. I want my filters made in the USA. I'm buying oil filters, not a package of t-shirts. Quality is required. So now when I'm buying filters I have to be sure and look at the "made in..." verbiage.

Sigh.... oil changes used to be pretty simple affairs for me.

No real point I guess. Just not happy about it and needed to whine a bit.

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[NCHilbilly]

A lot of foreign products are better than American made. Don’t know about oil filters, but I know that I’ve never seen an oil filter actually make a difference in how long a vehicle last.

 

[Canadian Ranger]

Not everything that comes from China is garbage, and not everything made in the USA is high quality.
Stick with Wix, you'll be fine.

 

[Jason B]

25 years ago "made in China' signified cheap and inferior products. You can't say the same today as most of electronic products from cell phones to computers are made in China. If it a well know brand name, it very well be a quality product. It's the knock offs you need to stay away from.

 

[got3fords]

25 years ago "made in China' signified cheap and inferior products. You can't say the same today as most of electronic products from cell phones to computers are made in China. If it a well know brand name, it very well be a quality product. It's the knock offs you need to stay away from.

It's all the junk in a Dollar General that's crap.

 

[Trigganometry]

For the most part products made in China are designed and funded by companies getting their manufacturing done to their standards. It’s the off hours when the black market stuff is made on the same lines and ether labeled the same or have some other tag slapped on it. That’s the problem area to be aware of. If it’s a cheap price it’s probably counterfeit

 

[Rp930]

Or you could just stick to Motorcraft. Nothing wrong with Wix but if it’s a concern just go with Fords recommendation.

 

[Jason B]

It's all the junk in a Dollar General that's crap.

Dollar General, Family Dollar and Dollar Tree.

 

[JimJa]

Bringing up oil filters and change intervals or brands, normally opens a war and name calling. Everyone feels very strongly about their own choice, and everyone's choice is correct! Please allow another opinion from an old guy who was raised in a family with an oil background.

If you REALLY want the very best filtration you have to have a by-pass filter. Otherwise, almost any filter will do. For example, Fram takes a lot of flack as being "junk." Why? Because it has a cardboard piece inside which can fail. I do not use Fram anymore but when I did I typically kept my vehicles for 200K miles and changed every 5K. Never had a problem.

Think about filters for a second. Most filters will pick up particles down to 25-30 microns. The problem is that particles may cause some minor long-term damage down to 15 microns. Filtering smaller is impossible because the filter would then be too restrictive and it doesn't matter how much filter material is contained within the filter. There can only be so much material in any filter.. BTW, a by-pass filter can filter down to 1-5 microns, but they are expensive to purchase and install. The filters themselves are also expensive, but if you intend to keep you vehicle for 400k-500k miles or more, they may be worth consideration.

Like the op, I find myself shying away from things made in China just due to our political environment, but their quality can be on par with similar items made elsewhere.

Bottom line, use the filter you feel comfortable with, you won't go wrong. Personally, I use pure synthetic (not a blend) only because of concern about the turbos in my Ranger and RS. I also extend my change intervals. At idle our turbos spin at around 50K and 200K at WOT. When the engine is shut down our turbos are still spinning and water cooling and oil lubrication has stopped. Long-term that can't be good for turbo life.

Use oil and filter you feel best about - it's your nickel.

 

[Mustang2Ranger]

Yea I just get the Motorcraft, they are all pretty much the same price

 

[Dgc333]

FWIW, a friend of mine used to work for IPC Global Solutions. They claim to be the largest supplier of filters to the automotive market in the US. Anyway, every brand of oil filter you have ever seen had some portion of their filters supplied by IPC. IPC makes everything they sell in China.

Anyway, my buddy lasted less than a year with them, just couldn't stand the constant traveling to China.

 

[Jedadiah]

Mann Hummel is German, which is usually a good sign of quality in my experience. They make a lot of OEM filters for VW. I just bought some WIX filters for my Subaru--since the OEM are in short supply--and was reassured when I saw Mann on the box despite having already having read good things about the brand in general. At least on my outback, Wix is the only brand that matches the bypass pressure that Subaru specs.

 

[Frenchy]

To make things easier on myself I just go get the OEM Oils filter regardless of manufacturer. For my old Pathfinder I get the Nissan Oil Filters wich are made in Japan. For the Ranger I went with the Ford Motocraft. It just made it easier. Why you ask? Because I know it's going to meet the OEM specifications. That is what will matter the most. That said I am already aware of the quality of the Purolator oil filters and they are good filters. It was the first brand I got to sell while working at a PepBoys when it was the Walmart of the Automotive world.

 

[Friday yet?]

A lot of foreign products are better than American made. Don’t know about oil filters, but I know that I’ve never seen an oil filter actually make a difference in how long a vehicle last.

Agreed... except when it is from China. China and quality never go in the same sentence.

 

[NCHilbilly]

Agreed... except when it is from China. China and quality never go in the same sentence.

why not? I can’t name anything that I have from China that breaks. I buy cheap Chinese made tools that work just as good as dewalt. My socks come from China, they are comfortable too. I haven’t tried any Chinese toilet paper, not even I’m that brave.

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