Years ago FRAM had a reputation for making very good filters.
Company was sold and resold a few times and eventually landed into the hands of businessmen and accountants.
To maximize profits, quality control measures were drastically curtailed.
Quality control measures are key in making a consistently good product over all examples.
Blind brand loyalty kept sales strong despite quality variability.
Accountants noticed.
After they maximized profits by reducing quality control personnel and processes. They trimmed skilled assemblers for the product. Increasing profitability. Without good quality control measures manufacturing mistakes went un-noticed.
Blind brand loyalty and advertising dollars kept sales and profits strong despite quality variability.
Accountants noticed and smiled.
Independent consumers began noticing noisy valvetrain in cars with Hydraulic lifters and began to correlate the occurrence with the brand of filter they used. Further investigation led to the realization that the bypass valves and pressure relief valve in canister type filters, when defective, cause loss of oil pressure, which starved the hydraulic lifters and made them noisy.
A couple of curious souls began a campaign of dissecting new filters on a brand basis. They found examples of poor quality control in the pressure relief valves and the bypass valves allowing low oil pressure and flow bypass of the filter material rending useless at best and detrimental engine lubrication at worst. The FRAM canister type filters and their re branded brethren were among the worst offenders in improperly assembled components. Their design could work alright if properly assembled, but the assembly process was so unpredictable that often the only function the canister had was to keep oil from being pumped external to the engine. Often the glue used to anchor the filter media and plastic valves was sloppily applied and block filter media or valve operation. That is, if the plastic valve were properly formed or placed to function correctly to Begin with.
The problem for consumers is that they all look okay from the outside. You have to destroy one to find any defects rendering it inoperable. Not many people cut these open either before or after use to examine contents for correct operation. Engines will run a long time even with dirty oil or low pressures. An oil filter is not an engine life guarantee, but an engine life extender. The oil filter is but one aspect of long life engine operation. How do you prove in court that your engine has lost, say, 10,000 miles of it's life due to a faulty oil filter?
I still use the FRAM filters (CH6009) that don't have valves or enclosures to hide defects. The filter media itself still seems to work quite well. And, I can examine for defects before I put it on the bike.
I believe FRAM has lost the recipe to consistently make good spin on cannister filters. They have certainly lost my trust in their once fine products I have relied upon in the past.
In the hands of their current bean counters, I'm afraid they will never regain my trust or business.
My viewpoint...
Cheers,
