Originally Posted By: boundarylayer
How to know if they are cellulose? We don't.
Exactly.
Originally Posted By: boundarylayer
Although BMW showed a microscopic view of the media on youtube a while back (video about getting non-BMW-approved Chinese counterfeits), and the micro view didn't show the glass fibers, only a woody thicket of cellulose jagged branches.
So we are to base the construct of the filters and material choice off of a marketing video? I am familiar with the video BTW and its purpose was to convey the risks and potential pitfalls of using counterfeit parts, not give us an anatomy lesson on oil filters
Originally Posted By: boundarylayer
Since Mann/Hengst/Mahle doesn't say they blend in glass fibers, I'll say they don't do that; its cellulose only.
They don't say that they don't either. Mann/Purolator certainly has access to (and produces under the Purolator moniker) synthetic glass media, as would the others through contracts with companies like Donaldson if they didn't want to produce it in-house. And ultimately it doesn't matter, the media is spec'd by the OEM, not the contractor, like, as I already noted, Ford's filters from Purolator. Donaldson makes a huge variety of filters too from ones that are plain old cellulose to synthetic glass media (a technology which they pioneered). They'll make a filter of any type using any type of media for an OEM on a given contract because that's what contractors do.
Originally Posted By: boundarylayer
We can trust BMW to allow minimum-spec oil filters in their cars.
We can trust BMW to spec a filter that provides a guaranteed level of performance, a level they feel is adequate to protect the engines they manufacture.
Originally Posted By: boundarylayer
The OP wanted to know if better was available, and it is available, given the info we have and being minimally observant as to media surface area.
I would say the only one we know is "better" is the FRAM Ultra, and that is in filtration. However, we have, as I noted earlier, observed the media/end-cap separation, which makes me wary of that filter in this particular application. That doesn't mean it isn't an exceptional FILTER; it is. Simply that its construction in terms of how the media is bonded to the end-caps has me worried based on that failure.
I'm not trying to be difficult, I simply don't feel we have enough here to be able to draw these lines in the sand.