Originally Posted By: JRed
The Bosch DistancePlus is a Purolator PureONE with a thicker can.
Save even more money by buying PureONE filters. They're the exact same thing internally but cheaper. Exact same filter media.
There is no way you or me could tell it with certainty.
Here is a quote from a Lexus forum by a filter design engineer:
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A Perspective on Filters
As a former Product Engineer for one of the household name filter manufacturers on the list, I'd like to add some perspective on filters:
1. You can bet that all filters made by a manufacturer are NOT equal. Filter makers make filters they supply to thier OE (original equipment) customers (i.e. Ford, GM, etc) to specs the customer sets. The filter makers are free determine specs for filters they sell in the aftermarket under their own label. Those filters may be of a better or lower quality than the OE filter. Areas where filters can differ include filtration efficiency (the percentage of particles of a particular size that are removed), capacity (amount of contaminant the filter can hold before becoming restricted), burst strength, pressure drop, etc, etc. Efficiency and capacity are determined for the most part by the filter paper, the performance of different papers can vary greatly, and differences are not possible to see by eye........lab tests under carefully controlled conditions are required. There's a lot of 'black majic' in what the paper manufacturers do and also a lot of jockying for position to get exclusive rights to the best paper to get an advantage over filter competitors.
2. If a filter manufacturer supplies OE (original equipment) filters to a car or engine manufacturer, then they are familiar with the specs required for those filters. (Whether the filters actually meet all the specs is a different question depending on the integrity of the filter maker. Filters are a comodity and the market is extremely competitive; I've actually seen out-of-spec product get knowlingly shipped just to keep production running and revenue coming in.)
3. If a filter maker doesn't provide OE filters for a particular application, they may not have access to the official specs for that filter and must "reverse engineer" their own filter to copy an OE filter. They obtain OE filters however they can, usually from a dealer. The quality of the final product depends on the skill and integrity of the filter maker.
4. Unfortunately, it's impossible for the the consumer to independantly determine which filter is best, and it's difficult to know which filter maker to trust. It's important to me to buy a filter that's most likely to meet the specs set by the engine or car manufacturer......it's their reputation that's "on the front lines" if there's a failure.
To maximize the chance of putting the best filter on any car I really care about, I either buy a filter from a (trusted?) filtermaker that I'm confident has access to the official product specs, or from the car dealer. I always buy the best filter available for the application. To me it's worth the extra money. I use filters from 5 different sources (some dealer-bought, some aftermarket) for the variety of cars we now own.
Cheers,
Bob
P.S. It's been a number of years, but I contacted the maker of a widley used "performance" filter for some technical info. The info they provided proudly showed a reduction in pressure drop which would result in greater performance. However, what I did not like was that the efficiency in removing particles of a particular size dropped from 98% to 97%. This may seem like an insignificant change, but if one considers that the number of particles of that size getting thru increases from 2% to 3%......a 50% increase in dirt that filter allows into the engine! .......but not my engine.....not for just another 2-3 hp near redline.
Last edited by Rufus; 07-05-08 at 06:58 AM. Reason: To add a P.S.
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