mschafer71

I substituted a Fram oil filter for the usual Mahle OC54 at my last oil change and noticed that the cold/start up oil pressure was higher than with the Mahle and wondered if the Fram had a relief valve and how it was designed/functioned. I dissected it after it was replaced at 3000 miles, examined the relief valve and saw no signs of sticking or damage. The shocker was when I examined the filter element itself, three different places were letting oil go thru the filter with out any filtering effect. The filter element is supported by a cylindrical steel frame that has about 240 perforations about 1.5-2.0 mm in diameter each. Only one of the 230 perforations was blow out/pushed thru so that would account for a <.5% volume of oil unfiltered. The other two gaps/holes were larger, 2mm by 3mm, still maybe only about 3-4% additional oil by-passing the filter element. One of the larger gaps was also a blow-thru by the seam of the filter frame but the other large gap was a result of the filter element being cut short and leaving a gap at the time it was manufactered. I will closely check my Mahle at my next change and will let Fram know what I found on taking the PH 2842 apart. Anyone changing out their Mahle may want to take it apart to see if their element is constructed any better & compare to the Fram photos I will attach.