I currently have 19000 miles. OCI are 6 month or 6000 miles w/ Mobil 1 Synthetic 5w-30 Truck & SUV.

During the last OCI about 2 months ago - 18000 miles. I was leaving town that very weekend and needed a quick oil change.

The two normal place that I usually buy my oil & filter both ran out of PureOne (AutoZone) and SuperTECH (Wal-Mart). OEM (Toyota) was way across town.

I made a split decision and pick up a POS filter FRAM since that was all that was avaialble.

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I am debating if I should swap out that cheap FRAM filter and put in a reliable PureOne/SuperTECH/OEM filter.

What you all think? Give me some motivation to remove the engine shield, drain the oil, change the filter, refill the oil and reinstall the engine shield.

and oil filter is an oil filter, at least you changed it. i dont even use synthetic cuz i get free oil at work(nissan dealer) so i change my oil and filter about every 1500miles

The general wisdom on BITOG is that the standard FRAM truly is a POS. That said, at a 6000 mile OCI, you probably won't have any problems with it.

It's not worth swapping it. It'll be fine for 6000 miles.
You can do a search on oil filters and get everyone's take on the best one to buy. The OEM filters that are made in U.S.A. look just like a PureOne, and rumor is that's it. The OEM filters made in Asia are a little better. It depends what your dealer carries and whether it's a good deal. My dealer is getting $5.50 for the Thai filters (90915-YZZD3), so that's the way I go. A dealer not far from me wants $7.50 for the U.S. filter - that's not worth it when the PureOne is the same thing and less expensive.

DONT NOT USE IT.............stick with oem

I would not use Fram, but if you have one in there , then no worries. On the next oil change, ditch the Fram. It

Hmm, a double negative. That means, "USE IT"

use it till your next oil change.

i've been using fram oil filter on my civic for years, never have a problem. i dont know why they call it a POS filter.

though i stop using it until i came across BITOG and found this site where they compare ala benchmark oil filters disect them to see what they are made of. now am a pure one user, and critics said its too restrictive but high filtering ability.

we cant have best of both worlds.

I've use only FRAM oil filters on my 235,000+ miles GM 4 cyclinder Pontiac. My 22 yr old vehicle is find and does not use oil at all. It still gets around 27-29 mpg and I still drive 70-75 mph on the so. California freeways. The Fram filter has always treated me right. I get my SUV oil changes at the dealer for now but will probably be changing to another vendor in about 12,000 miles or so.

Wow, there sure are alot of folks out there knocking Fram filters. Well, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Here's my 2 cents: I've been doing my own oil changes and have been using Fram filters for about a decade now and I've never had any problem with them. The "POS" filter that everyone is probably refering to is the orange colored oil filter. I've been using them along with the "ToughGard" and "XtraGuard" lines. The toughgard is a little better than the standard orange ones and the xtraguard are way better as the filter element is made from synthetic fibers instead of paper. I've used the standard orange & toughgard filters in my other family members' vehicles and none of them ever had any problems and their odometer readings range from 150k to 200k miles. Obviously, I wouldn't use the orange or toughgard on my 4R, but I did use the Xtraguard a few times before switching to Mobil1 filters. The oil filter housing on the M1 is of thick gauge and is pretty solid. The Fram Xtraguard synthetic filter element probably isn't much different from the M1 and I would say that it's a pretty good quality oil filter. In fact, the Fram xtraguard actually cost more than the Mobil1 filter. So my point is that not all Fram oil filters are crappy. Even the standard orange ones are decent, but aren't the best quality. I've seen crappier ones out there that cost only $1.99 each at local retail stores. So for those out there who are using the orange Fram oil filters, there really isn't anything wrong with them. What you want to use in your vehicle is your own decision. There are many other factors such as OCI, dino/synthetic oil and timing chain/belt that determine engine wear. FYI: I use Mobil1 5w20 oil & Mobil1 oil filters in my 4R every 6500-7000 miles. Different strokes for different folks!

Thanks for the feedback.

As average/below average of a filter as FRAM is. I think I can live with one OCI. Next time I will just make sure I have extra better oil filter hanging around the garage so this don't happen again.

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Back to oil filter quality. For $2 one can get a good SuperTECH filter or for $4 one can get an average FRAM filter or for $6 - one can get a excellent PureOne filter.

Since FRAM is only an average filter it should only cost 0.99 cents. That is what makes FRAM such a Rip Off/POS.

I don't have the link(s) handly but here are the rankings among these 3 particular filters.

C rating - FRAM - $4 (Total rip off)
B rating - SuperTECh - $2 (Best Overall Value)
A rating - PureOne - $6 (Best before you start paying for labels)


If you go above and beyond this - you must be happy paying for branding, labeling or lettering (like A + M + S + oil).

A rating - AMSoil, Mobil1 - $10+ (labels are expensive)
A/B rating - OEM - $10+ (just plain expensive for nothing - most of the time there are better alternatives)

After seeing the OEM filter opened-up and the filter removed and unrolled; I

I've NEVER seen an OEM filter for more than $7.50 at a Toyota or a Lexus dealer. They're as low as $4.50 (for Thai-made filters) on the Internet, and as I said, my local Toyota dealer is getting $5.50 for them.

Assuming PureOne gets an "A", then the Thai-made or Japan-made OEM filters must get an "A+". There is a difference. I believe the US-made OEM filter is a PureOne, so OEM gets an "A" grade all the way around.

I got a FRAM oil filter story for you guys...

So my boss's pops works for FRAM as one of their equipment facility technicians and one day he gets called into work because of some sort of machine malfunction. After he gets to work he diagnosis the problem and that the machine was "improperly" placing the filters into the canisters.

Unfortunately this was determined after the fact that a whole assembly line worth of filters have already been processed. Well, my boss's pops asked them whether or not they plan to recall the filters back even though they were already packaged and they said NO! That they have already been packaged and that no one would know since it dealt with the filter and is internal!

Well, he called my his son (my boss) and told him the whole story and said NEVER buy a FRAM! And this coming from the FRAM technician! I would almost run a few extra hundred miles on the OEM one until you can get yuor hands on an OEM one. Besides, oil change intercals for 4runners are 7500 anyways.

Take what you want from this, but there seems to an overwhelming concensus about these FRAMs.