Fram TG4386, three years, 13,000 miles - eeek!

[kd5byb]

I know people here love to see things pushed to the limits. This was not my intention! Wanted to change the oil in the '97 Mustang this morning, but had to move mother-in-law's Suzuki Aerio in some driveway Tetris to get the Mustang out. I had been asking sister-in-law, the usual driver of the Aerio, if it needed an oil change. She kept saying no and I assumed she was checking the mileage against the little oil change sticker. NOPE! So this filter was on the Aerio for 13,000 miles, three years, and oil was likely Penzoil conventional 5W-30. (Sister-in-law got a good talking to by yours truly re: checking the sticker versus the odometer) The Aerio is a 2005 with just under 100,000 miles on the clock.

I'm somewhat shocked at how well the Fram TG stood up to such abuse! Being blunt, I don't like the fiberboard element end-caps...but clearly they held up okay even though they were fragile / brittle after such rough service.



Yeech! Look at the gunk in the bottom of the can:


Nothing really remarkable about the pleats:


The one issue I found. When I went to pull the element from the can, I grabbed the edge with my finger and a chunk broke off. The end-cap material is pretty darn brittle.


Some of the pleats are a little wavy:


No drama with the ADBV or mounting plate. The little chunk is the piece that broke off when I removed the element from the can.


thanks much,
ben

 

[JeepWJ19]

Thanks for the C&P. The filter looks great.

Media is barely even weavy. My TG8As get weavier in less time and less miles.

As a Frame TG shill, these pictures make me happy

 

[kd5byb]

Originally Posted By: JeepWJ19
As a Frame TG shill, these pictures make me happy

I'll admit, for a long time I called anything by Fram the "Orange Can of Death" and thought Purolator was the cat's meow. That was until I had a Purolator become a Tear-o-lator and starting seeing C&P's here on the higher-end TG/XG Fram filters looking really good. Fram has got their act together, IMHO!

thanks,
ben

 

[Zee09]

It did great but there isn't enough savings to justify a TG over an Ultra
I think you know that now.
Thanks for the cp.

 

[kd5byb]

Originally Posted By: Zee09
It did great but there isn't enough savings to justify a TG over an Ultra
I think you know that now.


I can't remember if at the time Fram offered an XG4386. But for sure, I totally agree - I think I recall that the TG's were about $2 cheaper than the XG versions, so I'll be buying the XG's (when available) from now on.

thanks much,
ben

 

[pandus13]

Originally Posted By: kd5byb
Originally Posted By: JeepWJ19
As a Frame TG shill, these pictures make me happy

I'll admit, for a long time I called anything by Fram the "Orange Can of Death" and thought Purolator was the cat's meow. That was until I had a Purolator become a Tear-o-lator and starting seeing C&P's here on the higher-end TG/XG Fram filters looking really good. Fram has got their act together, IMHO!

thanks,
ben

had a TG orange in service for 3 oil changes (trough the stick tube + pump).
Did not have the tools to open the filter....

 

[SirTanon]

Lots of crud down in there. The filter definitely had its work cut out for it, but it appears to have been up to the task, at least at a glance.

13,000 is a lot of miles, but at least there was a filter on there up to the task. Could have been worse with a lesser filter.

 

[maxdustington]

Originally Posted By: kd5byb
I'm somewhat shocked at how well the Fram TG stood up to such abuse! Being blunt, I don't like the fiberboard element end-caps...but clearly they held up okay even though they were fragile / brittle after such rough service.

TG proved to be durable enough for a girl's car! Noice!

Thanks for the C&P

 

[1JZ_E46]

Nope. No way. And never. Thanks for the C&P.

 

[53' Stude]

I'd say it looks ok and got job done. Thanks for c&p

 

[gathermewool]

What’s with the clear particulates at the bottom of the end cap? Looks like water or silica.

 

[CR94]

That's a lot of junk in the filter, even for that mileage. I'll guess that car suffered from one or more of:
1) Numerous short trips or
2) Faulty or non-existent PCV system or
3) Excessive blow-by (worn rings) or
4) Incomplete drain the last time.

 

[kd5byb]

Originally Posted By: CR94

Numerous short trips or


Ding ding ding - we have a winner - lots of short trips on this car.

thanks,
ben

 

[Linctex]

3 years and 13,000 miles... ?

PFFFfffttt... that's a cakewalk

 

[Linctex]

Originally Posted By: gathermewool
What’s with the clear particulates at the bottom of the end cap? Looks like water or silica.


air bubbles & glare from the light

 

[dlundblad]

Looks like the filter did good. No complaints there...

Looks like the PYB was a bit over-used though and starting to sludgeify.

People like this need a 0w40. Same price as any other name brand, but can stand up to the abuse a bit more.

 

[Triple_Se7en]

PYB did fantastic in this application length. Both the oil and filter were simply left-in too long.

 

[blupupher]

Originally Posted By: Zee09
It did great but there isn't enough savings to justify a TG over an Ultra
I think you know that now.
Thanks for the cp.

Yeah, with the old pricing model, there was enough price difference between the XG and TG, but since Fram "improved" the TG line (still not sure what was improved), many of their filter models are only ~$1 in price difference between the TG and XG.
I was looking at the 9688 line the other day at Walmart for my sisters Hyundai Santa Fe, PH is $3.77, TG is $8.97, XG is $9.63.
The 4386 is a little better, being $3.77/$6.64/$8.97, but still, the XG is a much better filter, and could easily do this 3 year/13,000 mile interval and then some (although a good syn oil would help as well).

 

[Onug]

We’ve seen some ugly TG C&P’s here and yet they seem to hold together just fine. I’m an Ultra convert, but will admit if I walked into a Auto Parts store and all they had was a TG for my application I’d buy it and not loose a second of sleep (for one OCI).

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted By: kd5byb
The one issue I found. When I went to pull the element from the can, I grabbed the edge with my finger and a chunk broke off. The end-cap material is pretty darn brittle.


Typical finding on C&P inspections is the end caps are not very brittle, but those are on filters ran with much less time.

Date code on the filter looks like 242nd day of 2014.