best oil filter??/

flht1997 wrote:

back in my younger years and during college i worked at quick-oil change places and then the five years in the Chrysler shop and the Harley shop, i can safely say i have changed oil probably thousands of times. Fram are the lowest quality filter out there, and i tend to group most others as the same, (pretty good) quality. for all my junk i just go buy the factory stuff, Jeep and the Dodge get mopar, the Harley=Harley, BMW gets BMW, Kawasaki gets Kawasaki on down the line.
I have to say that the grippy stuff that Fram puts on the end of the filter was a darn good idea.

yup it was and is, but it doesnt negate the inferior inards...the ad target...the guy who is basically clueless , but can pull off the weekend oil change to impress junior ....."look son, see that grippy black patch, thats the sign of a good workable filter...ive always used fram and so did grandpa......"........:laugh: .....keith

Vter Bob wrote:

One benefit with the Wix filters I get is that both of the o-rings come with them. The Kawi filters I used to buy did not. Dealer wanted an extra $8 for them.

That's why I bought the Fram filter: it's the only one I could find that came with O rings that fit my bike. My dealer said the O rings for the old 750 twins were not available from kawi, maybe he was just blowing me off.

If there is a better filter/O ring available for the old 750 twins I would use it. Is there a site that shows the listings for the Wix filters?

I stopped using Fram when I saw a cutaway comparing Wix with Fram at the NAPA store. Wix has a really good filter look-up and cross reference site and NAPA filters are made by them dropping the first digit from the Wix p/n:

www.wixfilters.com/filterlookup/index.asp

Here is a site that goes into GREAT depth on filters. There's also a great writeup on oils as well. This guy really knows his stuff. Check it out. Very revealing.

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

Out of this list I've used the Purolater the most since they are cheap and available at Pepboys. The STP seems identical and I got that at Murrays or Autozone. Both types come with the large and small o-rings. These are for the 400, 500, 550, 650, 700, 750-4, and some of the 1000's (among many other non-KZ bikes).

Purolator ML16812
STP SMO-12 (Same as Purolator)
Baldwin: P148
Emgo: 10-37500
Hastings: LF571
Honda: 15410-422-000
Honda: 15410-422-004
Honda: 15410-426-000
Honda: 15410-426-010
Honda: 15410-300-024
K&N: KN-401
NAPA: 4941
Purolator: ML 16812
STP: SMO-12
Triumph: 1210031
Triumph: 1210031T301
Wix: 24941
Yamaha: 36Y-13441-00
Perf-Form: J-501


I AVOID THESE FILTERS MADE BY THE SAME COMPANY AS FRAM FILTERS:
avoid Fram:CH6012
avoid Pennzoil
avoid Penske
avoid Castrol
avoid Quaker State

I use Wix. Buy them through Rockauto.com. $5.04 apiece. Rock Auto has become my auto parts store of choice, since the only parts store in this town is run by an idiot.
Yeah, I've heard stories about Fram filters. One speculation I've read is that the failures seem to be based on moisture in the oil. If you live in a dry climate and always thoroughly warm up your engine it seems that you have a much smaller chance of a fram filter failing. But why take the chance?