Mileage rating on an oil filter .

[nomas]

How can you rate a filter for mileage ? There are way too many variables that would determine the life expectancy of a filter . Am I wrong ?

 

[dnewton3]

No, you're not wrong.
But the industry needs a quick, easy way to communicate a message to Joe Average buyer, so they can sell their product. And explaining those variables in 6-8 square inches of box face on the shelf at the autoparts store doesn't give them much room to do so. And in fact, I doubt the marketing people understand that any better than Joe Average anyway.

 

[ZeeOSix]

How can you rate a filter for mileage ? There are way too many variables that would determine the life expectancy of a filter . Am I wrong ?

By using a typical engine's average debris generation of grams per miles. That's all you can base it on.

 

[Furious]

It is likely they test filters for over the mileage they rate it for to achieve bit of wiggle room, additionally they clearly tell you to follow your manufacturers recommendations which protects them.

 

[dnewton3]

By using a typical engine's average debris generation of grams per miles. That's all you can base it on.

That, and the propensity for most OCIs and FCIs to be far short of anything challenging anyway. It's easy to mark something as "up to 20,000 miles" when the VAST majority of users are still going to change that filter at half its rating, regardless of whatever it's rated for.

 

[Mewbs]

How can you rate a filter for mileage ? There are way too many variables that would determine the life expectancy of a filter . Am I wrong ?

I don't trust marketing mileage rating numbers on the packaging. Many engines are different and some are more dirty than others that will generate more soot and debris in the course of their oil change interval. What I would do is set yourself a personal bench mark and inspect the cleanliness of your first cut open oil filter media in that initial oil change then determine how much longer can you run the same replacement filter at a set mileage limit and inspect the media again when the filter change is due.

For example, my car runs clean even at 136K miles when the last oil change was done, the filter when cut opened and wicked dry showed the media was fairly clean with very little carbon powder like debris on the bottom valley of the pleats near the inner tube of the Toyota filter cut opened. However that car has spent much of its time and life on the highway on full synthetic high mileage oil outside it's warranty period which is a factor. A car oil filter driven on the streets most of the oil life period would likely come more dirty. Many other factors come into play depending on the condition of your engine and age.