Fram Ultra restriction problems?

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Oldtom

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I was in the oil and oil filter aisle at Walmart and got to talking with a guy. He was buying one of the new Mobil extended life oil filters. I mentioned that the Fram Ultra a few feet over was a couple of bucks cheaper. The guy told me a had installed an Ultra on his vehicle and the oil pressure light would come on at idle ( he did not specify vehicle type ) He swapped the filter with the new Mobil filter and the problem went away. He said he would not use a Fram Ultra for his particular vehicle due to fear of engine damage. Not looking to start a Mobil vs Fram war, but, his comment surprised me. I thought the Ultra combined good filtration with high flow rates? I am running an Ultra on a 3.3 l Dodge Caravan with Mobil 1 5w-30 and it seems to work fine, even in super cold weather. The guy was well dressed and well spoken and seemed knowledgeable. He also did not ask me to vote for him which gives his credibility a big boost :)

has anyone heard of this?
 
No, we all know it is a dual syn filter, but I don't think it's going to affect it that much.

Maybe he had a weak pump, or sending unit?

I'm surprised you didn't ask his vehicle, year, and if he had any mods. You never know what a well-dressed, well-spoken person may drive
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Colt45ws
Well, at idle you have the lowest flow rate. So IMO something else is going on. Either a defective Ultra or something wierd with the motor.


Yep, my thoughts too.
 
We don't have enough. There's only one piece of evidence; An oil pressure light comes on at idle with a Fram Ultra in use. Put this in the cold case file.

I was watching Law 'n Order late last night. :^)
 
Originally Posted By: Oldtom
I was in the oil and oil filter aisle at Walmart and got to talking with a guy. He was buying one of the new Mobil extended life oil filters. I mentioned that the Fram Ultra a few feet over was a couple of bucks cheaper. The guy told me a had installed an Ultra on his vehicle and the oil pressure light would come on at idle ( he did not specify vehicle type ) He swapped the filter with the new Mobil filter and the problem went away. He said he would not use a Fram Ultra for his particular vehicle due to fear of engine damage. Not looking to start a Mobil vs Fram war, but, his comment surprised me. I thought the Ultra combined good filtration with high flow rates? I am running an Ultra on a 3.3 l Dodge Caravan with Mobil 1 5w-30 and it seems to work fine, even in super cold weather. The guy was well dressed and well spoken and seemed knowledgeable. He also did not ask me to vote for him which gives his credibility a big boost :)

has anyone heard of this?


I believe these synthetic media filters that have a superior filtration ability compared to most are in fact more restrictive. (Example) I began using fleetguard stratapore oil filters on my truck, then switched to the Donaldson endurance ELF7349, now it's the DBL7349, but anyways at startup the engine sounds like it takes about 2.5 seconds longer to build oil pressure compared to the fleetguard, where it was almost instantaneous. Dodges have an idiot gauge for oil pressure, so it's not accurate at all, but I can hear it by listening with the windows down after starting.
 
Maybe he wasn't using synthetic oil in the application. Since that's what the filter is spec'd for.
 
I had a similar situation when I bought my first Toyota truck in 1984. After 1000 miles I changed the oil with Castrol 10 w 30 and a Fram oil filter (standard grade OCD) The oil light took about 3 extra seconds to go off with the Fram. I changed back to a Toyota factory oil filter with the same oil and problem solved. Either the Toyota filter had a better ADBV or a better bypass or both. I never used anything but factory Toyota oil filters after that. The Toyota filter may be a window screen, but, dirty oil is better than no oil at startup.
 
Originally Posted By: SatinSilver
Maybe he wasn't using synthetic oil in the application. Since that's what the filter is spec'd for.


You can use Ultras with conventional if you like, should make no measurable difference.
 
Originally Posted By: Oldtom
I was in the oil and oil filter aisle at Walmart and got to talking with a guy. He was buying one of the new Mobil extended life oil filters. I mentioned that the Fram Ultra a few feet over was a couple of bucks cheaper. The guy told me a had installed an Ultra on his vehicle and the oil pressure light would come on at idle ( he did not specify vehicle type ) He swapped the filter with the new Mobil filter and the problem went away. He said he would not use a Fram Ultra for his particular vehicle due to fear of engine damage. Not looking to start a Mobil vs Fram war, but, his comment surprised me. I thought the Ultra combined good filtration with high flow rates? I am running an Ultra on a 3.3 l Dodge Caravan with Mobil 1 5w-30 and it seems to work fine, even in super cold weather. The guy was well dressed and well spoken and seemed knowledgeable. He also did not ask me to vote for him which gives his credibility a big boost :)

has anyone heard of this?


That theory could easily go the other way depending on the engine. My 66 Pontiac originally had the oil sender on the filter inlet side of the filter housing so a more restrictive oil filter would show higher oil pressure. Either way that guy you talked to in Walmart isn't improving anything using the Mobil filter, his engine is on borrowed time.
 
I do know Pureolator warned not to use the Pure 1 filters on motorcycles. No reason given, but I thought the filter must be too restrictive for some low volume oil pumps.
 
Originally Posted By: 6starprez
We don't have enough. There's only one piece of evidence; An oil pressure light comes on at idle with a Fram Ultra in use. Put this in the cold case file.

I was watching Law 'n Order late last night. :^)


Yup...he could have been driving an 80s Chrysler V8 with 350000 miles.
 
Originally Posted By: funflyer
That theory could easily go the other way depending on the engine. My 66 Pontiac originally had the oil sender on the filter inlet side of the filter housing so a more restrictive oil filter would show higher oil pressure. Either way that guy you talked to in Walmart isn't improving anything using the Mobil filter, his engine is on borrowed time.


I was going to post the same thing about if the pressure sensor is before the filter instead of after, it would cause lower oil pressure at the sensor. But even if the pressure sensor is after the filter, as mentioned earlier the oil flow rate is so low that the pressure drop across the filter would be very small - like less than 1 or 2 PSI at the most with hot oil.
 
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