oil filters

I change the oil every 5K or so w/ quality name brand oil. Any suggestions for what oil FILTER to use?
I drive these: '00 Honda CR-V 5spd (synthetic oil used) & '95 Infiniti g20 5spd (dino oil)

I used to religiously use the dealer item until they got too expensive or difficult to buy. I now use WIX which I get from O'Reilly's. Sometimes I may grab a Pure 1.

I use only Toyota OEM filters on my Toyotas, Harleys and Lotus. I'll also use a WIX or a Super Tech. On a Honduh, I would consider a OEM Honduh filter, WIX or Super Tech, if there wasn't a Toyota filter that crossed over.

Wix (Napa Gold is also Wix) or K&N (when I need the nut welded on it, genius!)

Car Quest filters are the same as the napa gold filters too. I use either car quest or napa filters, sometimes K&N if i cant find one elsewhere.

My Honda VFR uses a similar filter to what would come on your CR-V, the only differences are the depth of filter. I got the "shorter" length Purolator Pure 1, some online parts vendor was selling them for stupidly cheep prices through Amazon.com a year ago; I picked up 10 of them for $25 shipped to my door. Oil comes out fairly close to the same color it went in ~4k miles previous, they seem like a well made filter, I'm happy. If you look around you might find a good deal on these things.

Anyone have any scientific reasoning behind their oil filter choices?

I use K&N oil filters on the Cobra because I'm a K&N whore. (I'd put a K&N filter in my fishtank if I owned one).

On those cars I can't justify a K&N on, I use fram filters, simply because of the no-slip grip they put on 'em, and I can get 'em cheap at Kragen.

If I can get one, the best filter I've found for the benz is the Hengst(8$), but the Mann(6$) filters aren't bad. If I was going to use synthetic at an extended change I would use the better filter i.e. fram tough guard, purolator, etc. The oil will only last as long as the filter is able to clean it up.

Read Bob Is The Oil Guy for a filter comparo. I'll never run Fram's (I've had one burst and they are horribly made) but many others are good including Baldwin, Wix, NAPA, CarQuest, ACDelco, and K&N. The K&N's are especially useful in tight or awkward engines thanks to the 1" nut welded to the end.

I have read some horror stories on Frams of late. The apparently changed their manufacture several years ago and have had problems with the filter media collapsing. I have been running Napa Gold and K&N lately.

ReverendDexter wrote: Anyone have any scientific reasoning behind their oil filter choices? I use K&N oil filters on the Cobra because I'm a K&N whore. (I'd put a K&N filter in my fishtank if I owned one). On those cars I can't justify a K&N on, I use fram filters, simply because of the no-slip grip they put on 'em, and I can get 'em cheap at Kragen.

You can find pictures of the filter media used in about any brand's filters on the web these days. Same places will normally include information on the quality of the filter build-up, like the metal used, gaskets, etc. Fram is probably passable but I don't think anyone would fault a Wix or Purolator and they aren't that expensive. Many times the "premium" filter is available in a house brand with different paint applied, saving money and still getting you a great filter.

I grew up with Frams being the only filter we put on anything and I still run them today with never a problem. Maybe I'm just lucky.

I currently run the XG line, 7K mile frams with synthetic, and for conventional oil the TG line. Maybe the walmart brand once in a while.

Funny, the HAMB had a tread with nothing but horror stories about Frams. Maybe because they were on vintage high zoot motors? There were pics, not just " I heard that..." stuff.

ReverendDexter wrote: Anyone have any scientific reasoning behind their oil filter choices?

Yes.

I researched the filter specifications for all my vehicles on the Wix and Baldwin sites. I wanted to identify the specific filters that would satisfy the requirements of all the vehicles in my fleet. This lets me stock one single filter, instead of nearly half a dozen filters.

As for particular brand, I based my selection of Champion on filter media efficiency studies, construction and design, and price.

tons of data out there

http://www.corolland.com/oil-filters.html

http://minimopar.knizefamily.net/oilfilters/index.html

http://www.calsci.com/motorcycleinfo/Filters.html#OilFilters

http://www.turbomustangs.com/smf/index.php?topic=52833.0

IIRC, WIX and anything by champion labs seem to be good filters. Also most OEM filters are VERY high quality. The problem with Fram filters is the cardboard end caps that in certain situtations(don't change the oil on time or crazy volume pumps) sucks the cardboard through the filter and into the engine etc.. etc..

I've never experienced a problem with fram or the supertech filters from walmart The cores are made by Champion labs and the same as the STP and Bosch filters fo less $$$$

For example..

Supertech filter:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v631/bigodave/SupertechST8A.jpg

STP filter http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v631/bigodave/STPS8A.jpg

Fram(note paper end caps) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v631/bigodave/FramPH8A.jpg

Motorcraft(Love them..) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v631/bigodave/MotorcraftFL-1A.jpg

Napa/Wix(super high qualite) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v631/bigodave/Napa1515-Wix51515.jpg

Denso(Just to be sure we have a japanese brand) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v631/bigodave/Denso150-1004.jpg

After looking at the pics.. I'll drive a few more miles to NAPA.... Unless I find a deal on honda filters.

edit: ok one more stupid thing. Check out this article: http://minimopar.knizefamily.net/oilfilters/reference.html <--- Notice that fram's have the lowest surface area for filtration. That says it all for me. if you have a low surface area you will need to increase mesh size to equal the same flow as a finer mesh(filter size) with more surface area.