Originally Posted by pbm
I thought that the Napa Platinum (and it's Wix XP clone) were not great at filtering and hence not well regarded on this site? I know they are well built and I've used them without concern but I was led to believe that the Fram Ultra....and even the Napa Gold were better at filtering? PS: I'm not trying to be argumentative but I'm just surprised this hasn't come up yet.
Well built filters must not always be ones that trap the best. If best trapping was the only requirement in building a top-level filter, then every brand-new vehicle coming out of the factory would be wearing a Fram Ultra-type. .... and we all know these new vehicles today are not dressed in Ultra and it's not about price. Who cares if the new vehiche costs $28,000 or $28,005, to offset the higher cost of Ultra. The person buying the vehicle wouldn't flinch and still would buy the vehicle. So that means the manufacturer prefers something less trapping restrictive for it's new engine nad still maintain quality in that oil filter. We are the same. We all want quality. If we buy lesser quality, it's usually because of money flow concerns.
We have members here that drive auto parts trucks with 442K on the odometer. Original engine still and all it's seen are el-cheapo Pep Boys Proline oil and Proline (basic Purolator) oil filters. Many new engines today desire flow and not be choked by 99/20 oil filter measurements. That's why their such-a-push on this board these days, to follow OEM and buy OEM oil filters, or something very similar to it.