Now I can recall in the old days when we had those big old metal 'canisters' that tended to leak and we'd disassemble them, pop in a new cartridge and reassemble. V8s in teh 50s had them. The last I recall seeing one was on British Leyland Triumphs in the 70s.
Then the 'modern' spin on canister came along. It was simple effective and still cheap.
But then we got a '97 328iS. 1st I had to get over the $30 or $40 price for a humongous socket from BMW to remove the plastic 'canister'. I neatly avoided this buy buying a humongous front spindle socket from a parts store for $6 (in your face BMW!!!).
For those of you unfamiliar w/ BMW it is essentially a return to the old canister style filter and all you buy and install is a simple refill cartridge (yes you get to touch the paper and count pleats and all that junk to you heart's content.
Now I sat back and thought about this. The arguments for it are:
- More environmentally friendly (fewer throway maerials)
- BMW controls the engineering of the filter mechanism such as bypass and drainback and such since that is all part of the permanent filter equipment
- reduces cost (in theory).
Arguments against:
- Few filter companies support these
- Requires humongous socket (that was BMWs intentional choice as they strive to make the car difficult for the DIYer to do PM and thus coerce you into bringing in for just about anything)
- Is dramatically more expensive for the filter in reality.
I'm curious what other's thoughts are on this retro approach to filters. If anybody other than BMW did it I think I'd like it. In theory there is no need for the special humongous BMW socket and again in theory, the filter should be cheaper than a canister filter by all rights (but of course we're talking BMW).
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On a related note, it seems BMW filtes are OEMed under thier label by the typical and usual suspects from Germany like Mann or Mahle etc. Id' guess $20+ for a genuine BMW paper cartridge from BMW dealer. You can get the same filters in a Mann or Mahle or whatever box for probably mid to high teens say mail order or something. You can also get the same Mann/Mahle/etc filters or at least annonymous "Made in Germany" filters under common US brands like Fram et al. I'm certain the annymous ones are made by the usual Deutsch suspects.
Recently I was surprised to see the STP filter to not have the usual "Made in Germany" but rather "Made in Korea" label. Huh? That one surprised me. But it was down to $13 (an all time low) and that's all the store had - worked for me.
The only notable difference I can recall was that the Korean filter (STP) had a hard plastic and rubber seals on the ends of the refill cartridge and the German filtes always had heavy paper w/ felt seals on the ends.
Oh and for that ~$15 paper cartridge - they do also include a new o-ring for the plastic cannister and crush washer for the drain plug. For $15 - gee thanks - how about a magazine subscription while you're at it? Step up to one of these if you're just used to your avg ol' American car and you realize you're not in Kansas anymore!
At least I can hit 10K mi between changes.
Then the 'modern' spin on canister came along. It was simple effective and still cheap.
But then we got a '97 328iS. 1st I had to get over the $30 or $40 price for a humongous socket from BMW to remove the plastic 'canister'. I neatly avoided this buy buying a humongous front spindle socket from a parts store for $6 (in your face BMW!!!).
For those of you unfamiliar w/ BMW it is essentially a return to the old canister style filter and all you buy and install is a simple refill cartridge (yes you get to touch the paper and count pleats and all that junk to you heart's content.
Now I sat back and thought about this. The arguments for it are:
- More environmentally friendly (fewer throway maerials)
- BMW controls the engineering of the filter mechanism such as bypass and drainback and such since that is all part of the permanent filter equipment
- reduces cost (in theory).
Arguments against:
- Few filter companies support these
- Requires humongous socket (that was BMWs intentional choice as they strive to make the car difficult for the DIYer to do PM and thus coerce you into bringing in for just about anything)
- Is dramatically more expensive for the filter in reality.
I'm curious what other's thoughts are on this retro approach to filters. If anybody other than BMW did it I think I'd like it. In theory there is no need for the special humongous BMW socket and again in theory, the filter should be cheaper than a canister filter by all rights (but of course we're talking BMW).
------
On a related note, it seems BMW filtes are OEMed under thier label by the typical and usual suspects from Germany like Mann or Mahle etc. Id' guess $20+ for a genuine BMW paper cartridge from BMW dealer. You can get the same filters in a Mann or Mahle or whatever box for probably mid to high teens say mail order or something. You can also get the same Mann/Mahle/etc filters or at least annonymous "Made in Germany" filters under common US brands like Fram et al. I'm certain the annymous ones are made by the usual Deutsch suspects.
Recently I was surprised to see the STP filter to not have the usual "Made in Germany" but rather "Made in Korea" label. Huh? That one surprised me. But it was down to $13 (an all time low) and that's all the store had - worked for me.
The only notable difference I can recall was that the Korean filter (STP) had a hard plastic and rubber seals on the ends of the refill cartridge and the German filtes always had heavy paper w/ felt seals on the ends.
Oh and for that ~$15 paper cartridge - they do also include a new o-ring for the plastic cannister and crush washer for the drain plug. For $15 - gee thanks - how about a magazine subscription while you're at it? Step up to one of these if you're just used to your avg ol' American car and you realize you're not in Kansas anymore!
At least I can hit 10K mi between changes.