david90

I just bought a FRAM oil filter at walmart by using the little computer to find an application for my 97 accord lx. I noticed that the honda oem filter doesn't look like the Fram filter on the inside but the dimension of the Fram filter is identical to oem filter. Shouldn't all filter made for 97 accord lx look the same on the inside and outside? I'm kinda worry that i might got and installed the wrong filter.

Is Fram a good brand of filter? Is Penzoil a good brand of oil?

I tried to get oem filter and oil (1 filter 4 quarts of oil) and the total was around 17 bucks. wtf. Does it really cost that much or did the dealer tried to rip me off? The dealer charge only 23 bucks for an oil change; so they charge 6 bucks for labor???

TypeSH

I paid $6/each (or 6.50) for my S2000 honda oem filters (that i'm using on the accord). So I guess at $2/quart of oil it owuld be about that price, but you can get oil/filters cheaper if u really wanna save money. Like STP filters are ~$3, and you can get oil at a dollar a quart on sale.

iam7head

Pennzoil is the cheapest sh-t you can get, same with fram, it's very crappy.

go buy a case of oil filter and split it with some friends, i got around 30% discount for groupbuy at my dealer.

i would pick valvoline syn. blend over most of the oil out there.

oem canadian(made by fram) filter

Beach Accord

go with honda OEM toyo roki mfgd filters and also you can use the filtech mfgd filters too.
for oil use castrol gtx. castrol syntec or mobil 1 for full synthetic.

theavenger333

fram is a good filter, it is mostly all based on personal prefrence, i have used anything from wal-mart filters to OEM, they all do the job, especially if your ride is generally stock. as for oil, they pretty much covered it above, i use Mobil 1

Spartanic

Honda's oil filters are known to be better than other 3rd party oil filter manufacters because its made for that specific vehicle. The reason is becuase other oil manufacter's are meating the consumer demand for cheaper oil filters so they can make millions of them with crappier materal and design. It saves them millions but you wont get the best filter. I've heard that FRAM makes a decent oil filter though.

iam7head

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by theavenger333 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">fram is a good filter, it is mostly all based on personal prefrence, i have used anything from wal-mart filters to OEM, they all do the job, especially if your ride is generally stock. as for oil, they pretty much covered it above, i use Mobil 1</TD></TR></TABLE>

they are rather low grade once you get a open a fram filter up, compare it with oem filter, you can tell the different.

RotaryBzzzz

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by iam7head &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

they are rather low grade once you get a open a fram filter up, compare it with oem filter, you can tell the different.</TD></TR></TABLE>

yes

jweller

seriously.

how much difference can the filter make on a motor that gets regular oil/filter changes. I mean how much "crap" really gets in there?

I mean this to be a serious Q. I've seen all the websites with cut open oil filters but they all leave me with a feeling of "so what". nobody ever does an analysis of the oil coming out of the motor and what kind of particulate material is in it. it's all just some guy in his garage with a dremmel, cuttting open a filter, going "this one is paper, so it's clearly inferior to this foam one" zero hard science involved. it's a good start, but I cant justify spending $11 for a mobil1 filter based on it.

gives his motor new synthetic and a honda filter every 5k, but wonders if he's not a bit obsessive.

briq4

Just my experience, been using "HONDA" genuine filters since I've owned the car (had one on it when I bought it as well with 32,000 miles on it) I'm going to turn 300,000 miles in just 5,000 short miles so my guess is that the Honda filters have done their job. No engine mechanical problems to speak of. Although I don't like that Honda has changed the style of them all of a sudden, instead of being short and fat they are tall and skinny. No idea why they did that. But so much for the filter wrench that used to work on the old filters.

jweller

I'm pretty sure they went to the new style filter to keep things simple. thats the filter that is on all the new K series motors, so i think they are just reducing part numbers. supposedly they increase oil pressure... not idea if there is any truth to that or not.

also needs a new filter wrench

rock2447

I'm currently using FRAM and I've always heard they were not a good choice. I'm going to switch to the Honda OEM Filter but what about the crappy Penzoil? I use Valvoline SynthecBlend in my 88 Honda Prelude SI with 170,000 but I'm afraid of switching to a full synthetic from regular oil in my 93 Honda Accord LX with 120,000. Is there a way to do it safely?

Beach Accord

i would stay away from fram. i would also stay away from honda filter with part number 15400-plm-a02

that is a fram filter with a honda stamp on it.

if you want a good OEM filter, request that an s2000 filter be used instead of the usual PLM-A02.

Even the PLM-A01s are decent

theavenger333

i've cut open an oem, fram, mobil 1, pennzoil, and a walmart(supertech or something) filter, did it for a project for school. i had used them all for 3000 miles on my accord, same oil, regular mobil 10w-30. the only one that blew nuts was the pennzoil one and the walmart. the OEM was the best, don't get me wrong, but the Fram was better than the Mobil even. it was based on the filter inside, how much gunk was on it, burnoff, residue etc. OEM is the best, it is the actual part made for the car, but Fram is not anything to shy away from.

theavenger333

just for giggles, FYI, if you are using Mobil 1 synthetic oil, they give their guarantee about ****, and they are endorsed by mercedes and bmw and stuff. if you read carefully, that is ONLY if you use the mobil one filter also, which runs about a dollar more. they say it has somehting to do with the way the filter is positioned.......but it might be a load of propoganda BS to buy more mobil stuff

Chiovnidca

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jweller &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">supposedly they increase oil pressure... not idea if there is any truth to that or not.

</TD></TR></TABLE>
Nope, no truth at all. Just bullshit.

knowtomorrow3001

So you guys are using s2000 oil filters on your accord why? I may have to try this. What year is your accord your using the s2000 filter on? Fram sucks I bought a sure grip and the seal broke the first day I had it on after about 300 miles. So when I was taking my girl home the oil light came on and I had to pull over all most all the oil had leaked out. I was glad I was running synthetic cause I drove for a few miles with the oil light on. So if it wasnt for the good oil I may have blew my motor. I use KandN oil filters and a Pure one Puralator now. I thought that the shop might have put the filter on too tight but they didnt. I took it back to the parts store and the said it was a OEM defect. Poo on Fram

Beach Accord

K&N are good and so are purolator pure ONEs. I Use the s2000 filters on my accord because: 1. they are made in japan by toyo roki which is excellent quality. 2. They are used on s2000s, (cant go wrong). and 3. i work at a dealership so i get em for next to nothing so why not?

-chris B

TypeSH

i need to get a filter wrench for the S2000 filter, its larger in diameter than the regular accord one. It has more filter size, and its made in japan as mentioned above. THe other honda OEM filters are made in the US and i think by fram? but the quality of the US OEM filters have gone down since they stopped having filtech (sp?) make them.

jweller

I just bought 1/2 a dozen of the new smaller filters on saturday and they had filtech stamped on them.

TypeSH

maybe its just the canadian ones then.

AngryTroll

You guys are funny. Fram manufactures almost all of the oil filters for the U.S. market (probably Canada, too). They are manufactured to Honda's specs so the differences between the orange, off-the-shelf oil filters could be huge. Who knows? Honda recommends changing their OEM filter every 20K miles under normal conditions ('02 and up). How bad could they be?

JimBlake

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by AngryTroll &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You guys are funny. Fram manufactures almost all of the oil filters for the U.S. market (probably Canada, too). They are manufactured to Honda's specs so the differences between the orange, off-the-shelf oil filters could be huge. Who knows?</TD></TR></TABLE>Probably true. Has anyone cut up a Fram/Honda filter & compared it to an orange Fram?

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by AngryTroll &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Honda recommends changing their OEM filter every 20K miles under normal conditions ('02 and up). How bad could they be?</TD></TR></TABLE>All car makers are under a lot of pressure from the EPA to extend intervals for every disposable fluid. Especially oil. What their intervals really mean is that almost all the engines will make it through the warranty period.

AngryTroll

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JimBlake &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">...What their intervals really mean is that almost all the engines will make it through the warranty period...
</TD></TR></TABLE>
I couldn't agree more. I think it's insanity to leave oil in an engine for 10k miles, use the same oil filter for 20k miles or keep the same set of spark plugs for 110K miles. You never know when a component or a system has failed. PCV valves clog, oil filters have manufacture's defects, spark plugs will seize in a cylinder head, excessive oil/coolant/fuel deposits foul spark plugs and any of another bazillion problems could cause a 'low maintenance' engine to need maintenance really bad.

Honda's claims improvements in the PCV system have allowed the extended use of oil and filter but I think it's just a great selling point. You should hear the sharks (salesmen) push the low maintenance (or even 'no maintenance') feature of the new Honda. There are customers who have walked into our service department with the idea their car has ZERO maintenance for 100K miles. I wonder where they got that idea...

JimBlake

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by AngryTroll &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I couldn't agree more. I think it's insanity to leave oil in an engine for 10k miles, use the same oil filter for 20k miles...</TD></TR></TABLE>I can kinda understand the motivation for long oil intervals. Waste disposal & all that. But to keep the old filter with new oil? That seems pretty stupid.

There's a couple people on the Saab BB that have gone for long oil intervals, 10k, 15k, & more. That's with synthetic oil, and their particular driving profile, probably dominated by LONG trips. It's starting, especially cold starts, that's hard on the oil. And I think at least one of those guys changes his filter halfway through the oil's life.

But most important, those people have had their oil analyzed along the way. There's a couple places you send your oil, they'll analyze it & tell you how the viscosity is doing, how much of the additives are still there, and what kind of impurities it has. Check out bobistheoilguy.com for more of this fun stuff.