Defective Tough Guard TG10060 removed C&P

[Jim Rogers]

The line between overly cautious and paranoid is pretty thin. Anyway, It seems your concern that this freak manufacturing defect is much higher than it is for me. Fram was informed of the issue, which is a good thing if they listen and look into why that happened. Customer feedback for any product is a good thing.


If something keeps showing up in this forum, it's probably going to be a fairly common issue. I remember when the Purolator tearing issue hit the fan, and there were actually guys here who claimed it was only happening to BITOG members, lol. Now how likely would that be unless every one of the reported media tears were faked, which they were not.


My bet is this is a one-off freak incident.


For your use case, it sounds like a good solution. If you don't want the extra filtering efficiency due to the shorter OCIs, then it's a good fit.


No, they are not WIX made filters. Most MicroGard Selects are made in Vietnam. You've probably seen them posted here, and have seen a few of the Whip City Wrencher YouTube vidoes on them.


After the dust settled, the Ecogards seem like your new go-to filter.


Thanks ... yeah, debating all of this is fun and a good time eater to boot - which can be a bad thing at times, lol.

Yes, it's clear that you and I have different intuitions as to the significance of this one event.

I really hope that you're right and I'm wrong. Far from a Fram hater, I'm actually really rooting for them. Every time I see an orange can Fram it transports me back to my youth-- nothing would make me more happy than to switch to the Fram EG's.

Not only that, but I'm not wild about buying Chinese filters, and that's where the Ecogards are made.

But in my now-poor, retired state, I had to make the pragmatic choice.

Please, Fram (or Purolator or Wix)-- get your act together and bring me back into the fold!

I want to come home!

Thanks again for the conversation.

 

[ZeeOSix]

It seems like the process failure is the metal crimp band did not get installed, allowing the media to enter gluing with the gap. I'm not seeing how it could be a tear because the edges are uniform across the full length on both sides.

Yep, if the missing pleat(s) were glued to the end cap and then tore off, there would be a small piece of media still glued to the end cap. That glue bond is super tough. Besides, a piece of media that large couldn't go through the bypass valve, and it wouldn't just "magically" disappear.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Here are the defect rates for 4, 5 and 6 sigma quality levels.

4 Sigma: 6,210 defects per million
5 Sigma: 233 defects per million
6 Sigma: 3.4 defects per million

Keep in mind the values are for all types of defects that force a unit to be scrapped, reworked, deviated on or in this case, escaped out to the customer. What we hope is Fram has been improving its processes since 2014 when this unit was built to drive this defect to zero and/or catch it 100% of the time within the factory. It would be interesting to find out how many million units come out of Fram facilities and what sigma level their processes are rated at.

Oil filter production will never become a 6-sigma quality level. At best, it would probably be between 4 and 5 sigma. 6-sigma is something that happens in processes that have a whole bunch of QA checks in the process, like aircraft, spacecraft, electronics, etc kind of production. Even car manufacturing isn't anything close to 6-sigma quality level ... might even be worse than oil filter sigma levels, lol.

 

[bullwinkle]

Buy Ecores, or filters with big round holes in the center tube, and look at pleat spacing before you buy. I already take the filter out & look for dents (you would be surprised how many I find), take a good flashlight & look inside at pleat spacing (& ADBV type/location is good too). This filter was a one time screw up-yes, it was bad, but I would lay large odds it's unlikely to be seen again. A little inspection puts you ahead of 99.99% of vehicle operators that just get whatever junk the quickie lube slaps on there!

 

[Plawan]

Removed this defective Fram TG10060 that was ran for 6504 miles on a 2016 Ram 1500 5.7L

Upon cutting open some filter media was missing allowing unfiltered oil through four holes and tube seam it looks like. There were some flakes/specs in the bottom of the can so it did not bypass everything it appears. Oil was a mix of full synthetic 5w20 Havoline & Mobil 1.

It was the last of my older stash of TG's, all of the previous were fine when cut open. I reached out with photos to Fram via email to see what their response will be. Never had an issue like this one, another Fram TG10060 went back on but was newer/recently bought from Wally World along with a mix of 0w20 & 5w30 Total Quartz from my clearance stash.







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Flow over filtration right there!
Coulda been caused by moisture lol.