Cut open two Motorcraft FL400S's

[Gary Allan]

Sounds like you're on a biannual OCI ..perhaps biased a bit to a shorter winter bout. That can usually work for most with the use of synth or conventional being either dictated by the mileage or the service. In your case the use of synthetic is surely justified over the winter OCI.

You've gotta wonder why we quibble over the difference between 20 and 30 weight when you (and some of our northern plains states) have such radically more severe temps to deal with that put start up viscosity so far out there in comparison.

I can't imagine any filter manufacturer having that lame a QC methodology in place that can allow any inherent defect to go undetected for any long bout without corrective action. I can see no defect in engineering (as in the process that was designed to manufacture the filter) being left "flawed" for any length of time either.

Any filters found defective should be sent back to the manufacturer to allow them to examine the problem and pinpoint the conditions (shift/line/adhesive/media) present that allowed this to occur.

 

[TurboJim]

Just to update my own observations on the following 3 Motorcraft FL-400S production numbers:

907050623 - 3 filters from this production run had media that was not sealed.

908030613 - 1 filter had 3/4 of it's seam sealed.

909130523 - 1 filter had it's media sealed, 1 filter's media was not sealed.