Received an email from Purolator

[dlundblad]

I emailed them about a month and a half ago. Thought you guys would like to read this. I am not Mr. Barker by the way.. Maybe someone here??

"Dear Mr. Barker,
Thank you for your input and loyalty to the Purolator brand. Although I am new here as Quality Manager, I can assure you that our mission here at Purolator is one of quality and commitment to continuous improvement. I have reviewed that forum and have had inquiries from a few other members/readers. Over the last month I have been discussing and reviewing processes with the production, engineer and quality team. We have done some physical and theoretical analysis (to include another 45 minutes just this afternoon) and have implemented a few improvements. We have not found an assignable cause for the type of claims posted there. Based on the information I have seen, the claims have been typically from stockpiled batches. We are always improving our products and process. I recommend buying new items as the need arise to take advantage of any undisclosed improvements. I check back to the beginning of 2013, and we have one received and confirmed 1 tear (September 2013 production date). We’d welcome any return of the suspected failures for analysis.

If you have further questions for the quality, production or engineering team, please do not hesitate to contact me directly at [email protected]. After all, with some many of you loyal and intelligent customers providing input and insights back to us, we cannot help but improve. 4/22/2014.

Roderick L. Mack
Quality Manager"

 

[Ndx]

Thumbs up for the company

 

[ZeeOSix]

Step in the right direction. In the mean time, keep cutting open filters to see what's going on.

I think they've been sent way more than "one confirmed tear". I know at least 3 or 4 members here have sent in torn filters to Purolator for analysis.

 

[michaelluscher]

You just beat me to it.
I emailed them back in Early Feb of '14 and it took until today for them to make a statement.
Quoting the email I received
"Dear Mr. Luscher,

Thank you for your input and loyalty to the Purolator brand. Although I am new here as Quality Manager, I can assure you that our mission here at Purolator is one of quality and commitment to continuous improvement. I have reviewed that forum and have had inquiries from a few other members/readers. Over the last month I have been discussing and reviewing processes with the production, engineer and quality team. We have done some physical and theoretical analysis (to include another 45 minutes just this afternoon) and have implemented a few improvements. We have not found an assignable cause for the type of claims posted there. Based on the information I have seen, the claims have been typically from stockpiled batches. We are always improving our products and process. I recommend buying new items as the need arise to take advantage of any undisclosed improvements. I check back to the beginning of 2013, and we have one received and confirmed 1 tear (September 2013 production date). We’d welcome any return of the suspected failures for analysis.



If you have further questions for the quality, production or engineering team, please do not hesitate to contact me directly at [email protected]. After all, with some many of you loyal and intelligent customers providing input and insights back to us, we cannot help but improve. 4/22/2014.



Roderick L. Mack

Quality Manager"

This is most interesting........

 

[Mr Nice]

Will 1 or 3 tears really matter ?

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
Will 1 or 3 tears really matter ?


There have been more that 3 cases reported in the last few months. Only a few who find tears contacted Purolator and sent the filter in for analysis.

Obviously Purolator has taken notice of this issue and is looking at what might be causing it, even though they said in the letter there was no "smoking gun" so to speak - "We have not found an assignable cause for the type of claims posted there."

 

[bullwinkle]

Need to keep this Roderick Mack's email address handy, so that he can be snowed under by all these "only 1" torn media filters!

 

[FetchFar]

How many people actually cut open their oil filters? I don't know why Purolator cant simply go out to their own parking lot and take 100 used Purolator Classic oil filters off to see how many have tears, or go to JiffyLube and capture Purolator Classic filters there. ...duh....

 

[spasm3]

I got this today, i had emailed them a month or so ago.



Dear Mr. Robinson,

Thank you for your input and loyalty to the Purolator brand. Although I am new here as Quality Manager, I can assure you that our mission here at Purolator is one of quality and commitment to continuous improvement. I have reviewed that forum and have had inquiries from a few other members/readers. Over the last month I have been discussing and reviewing processes with the production, engineer and quality team. We have done some physical and theoretical analysis (to include another 45 minutes just this afternoon) and have implemented a few improvements. We have not found an assignable cause for the type of claims posted there. Based on the information I have seen, the claims have been typically from stockpiled batches. We are always improving our products and process. I recommend buying new items as the need arise to take advantage of any undisclosed improvements. I check back to the beginning of 2013, and we have one received and confirmed 1 tear (September 2013 production date). We’d welcome any return of the suspected failures for analysis.



If you have further questions for the quality, production or engineering team, please do not hesitate to contact me directly at [email protected]. After all, with some many of you loyal and intelligent customers providing input and insights back to us, we cannot help but improve. 4/22/2014.



Roderick L. Mack

Quality Manager

 

[spasm3]

Sorry for posting this as i just saw someone else got an identical response.

 

[FutureDoc]

Quote:
I check back to the beginning of 2013, and we have one received and confirmed 1 tear (September 2013 production date). We’d welcome any return of the suspected failures for analysis.


Interesting... but I am not buying it.

What do we know about the shelf-life of oil filters? It seems odd but I would expect for them to have a long factory-to-shelf-to-customer life since it is not a perishable item like a vine-ripe organic tomato... plus you have to add in the time it would take to drive X,XXX miles.

So, in my case (made 8/13), I would basically have to have it factory ordered and in my hands in a month and then drive 3XXX miles before the end of the year. A failure in Feb 2014 of a Aug 2013 product is not a "batch that sat around" issue. I smell a bit of [censored] here. I bought my Aug '13 made P1 in October and removed it in Feb.

I am glad to hear purolator is working on it, but if the issues come from late 2013 batches, then they would show up in early 2014 as the failure point.

I hope they make filters in batches... otherwise, made-to-order filters would be a bad business model for a large industrial complex.

 

[FutureDoc]

No, post the same response.... I am interested to see the form-letter going out. Maybe I will get an email soon.

 

[FetchFar]

Originally Posted By: dlundblad
I check back to the beginning of 2013, and we have one received and confirmed 1 tear (September 2013 production date). We’d welcome any return of the suspected failures for analysis.

If you have further questions for the quality, production or engineering team, please do not hesitate to contact me directly at [email protected]. After all, with some many of you loyal and intelligent customers providing input and insights back to us, we cannot help but improve. 4/22/2014.

Roderick L. Mack
Quality Manager"


So he is asking people to return Purolator Classics that they HAPPENED to have cut open, because they don't know how to go out into the field and collect 100 random samples? IQ problem maybe, or does he assume we are the stupid ones?

 

[FutureDoc]

Also, I just want to point out here that the "stockedpiled batches" is a bit flimsy.

I bought an August 2013 made P1 filter in October of 2013 (and emailed Purolator in Feb 2014 after 3,700ish miles). Two months from factory to customer is exactly what you would expect for this item and then you have to add on the 2-6 months it would take a person between oil changes (sometimes longer). So, if bad batches were going out in mid-late 2013, you would see failures in early 2014. I am glad he only got one complaint in 2013... but that is because it would have been logistically more rare to begin with.

 

[FetchFar]

I sent an email to Mr. Mack:

Mr. Mack, Can you go out and get 100 Purolator Classic oil filters from your parking lot and/or jiffylubes around town and then till the bobistheoilguy.com forum how many torn media filters you found?

 

[FetchFar]

Do they regularly sample in the field? Can't be that hard. They can build their own statistical models to actually know whats going on with their own product.

 

[FutureDoc]

Originally Posted By: FetchFar
Do they regularly sample in the field? Can't be that hard. They can build their own statistical models to actually know whats going on with their own product.



The might have a deal with a quick-change place that might return them but most likely they take random samples from the factory line and test them.

The problem with the field is that they would deal with a lot of unknowns...

At least with BITOG, they got a clear idea of how the vehicle was used, but I can only get a 200mi window in my records of when I changed the oil because I go by date of purchase in my records, not installation so there can be some gap there.

 

[earlyre]

ok Purolator, so it's my fault for buying a filter a year before i use it? (even though the build date is a year before that. IE: it sat on a shelf somewhere for a year before i bought it.)
The filter below, date coded for early 2011, I bought it as part of an oil/filter combo deal in 2012, put on car July 2013,took off about 2 weeks back:
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/3348481/PL14477_Autopsy#Post3348481

pardon me for "stockpiling" supplies 2-3 oil changes in advance...

 

[FutureDoc]

Originally Posted By: FetchFar
I sent an email to Mr. Mack:

Mr. Mack, Can you go out and get 100 Purolator Classic oil filters from your parking lot and/or jiffylubes around town and then till the bobistheoilguy.com forum how many torn media filters you found?


Interesting, but I do not know how useful that sample would be as if you pulled from my parking lot, you would get a P1 filter with 1K miles (wifes), one with nearly 3K miles (Subaru)... and then a HOST of other not-at-the-end-of-their-life filters (lots of sub 3K or 5K filters) and it would skew the results. People at Jiffy-lube might not have clue about their OCI and their records would be suspect.

 

[FetchFar]

Originally Posted By: FutureDoc
Originally Posted By: FetchFar
Do they regularly sample in the field? Can't be that hard. They can build their own statistical models to actually know whats going on with their own product.



The might have a deal with a quick-change place that might return them but most likely they take random samples from the factory line and test them.

The problem with the field is that they would deal with a lot of unknowns...

At least with BITOG, they got a clear idea of how the vehicle was used, but I can only get a 200mi window in my records of when I changed the oil because I go by date of purchase in my records, not installation so there can be some gap there.



Averages out the unknowns if they get 50 to 100 random samples. Thing is, none should be tearing unless they are in for over a year. ... They could go to a fleet they are supplying, like rental cars, police, taxis, city fleets, etc. too.