Are any oil filters NOT made in China?

The Emgo 10-20300 oil filters I got from Z1Enterprises.com over a year ago were made in Thailand.
PartsnMore had some muffler connection gaskets I needed, so I got a spare oil filter from them last fall.
It's an "N" brand oil filter. made in Taiwan. #15-0002. approx. 55 pleats. the box says:
"We have used the filter paper made in Germany for more than ten years."

The last emgo filter I removed from the bike also has 55 pleats, but there is a metal piece over one of the pleats, probably for joining the ends of the pleats where they meet. the N-brand filter doesn't have the metal piece.
For some confusion, there's an emgo 10-20300 on eebbaayy with a sticker that says "Made-in-Thailand 15-0002".
I don't know what could be determined from that info.

I have several NOS Purolators, with different era boxes. The older style box (dark gray, white, red ) says see product for country of manufacture. It was made in Korea. The newer box with more modern printing (has photo of motorcycle on it) is made in China.

So yup, it will all be China soon.

Nessism wrote: Hiflo are made in Thailand. Comes with two O-rings and are cheap.

They also make a lot of OEM filters.


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I'm curious about this...
Not that I am a fan of most stuff made in China. I have purchased many tools made there and as expected, they fall apart or wear-out in shorter order but that's a tool. Often I buy them specifically because they are cheap and I only need them for one job/task and if it lasts longer, great! If not, no biggie, it served it's purpose.
However, I gotta believe something like a paper element oil filter is not made by hand. Most certainly they're made by robots and industrial machines which is why I am curious. How different can a product made by a Chinese robot be from say, a Thai robot or even an Italian robot?
Or is it the quality of the materials involved? Chinese paper is lower grade than (insert alternative country of origin here) paper?
Like I said; just curious. Call me the devil's advocate :evil:

Just seems to me they would save a penny any where they could and do it a little faster to save cash....... the equipment stand I bought for my Plasma tv was surprisingly good though..... nice glass..... wood .... even the hardware and the allen wrench held up after triple checking all the many screws so not all of it is junk..... last 2 can openers lasted about 2 cans each which really had me hot.... several tools real crap but a few not to bad too.

I'm sorry, I've become JADED against CHINESE JUNK. :woohoo:
I know, I have a strange sense of humor. :whistle:
Steve

It's more about testing.

Chinese metalurgy has been shoddy in the past. But really it's the lack of testing (or lack of caring about test results) that is the reason those products get on the market.

What if they do no testing to see if their glue stands up to hot oil use over 10 years or whatever? Then you have shreds of filter material throughout the engine. You can blame the faulty glue, but really, its the lack of testing, or lack of caring that is the real systemic problem.

I bought a Chinese made 2100 lumens flashlight 6 moths ago for 12.00, it came with rechargeable batteries, & home & car charger, it can literally temporarily blind some one if pointed in the eyes, It works fantastic, I was skeptical about buying it, but compared to over 75.00 for a U.S. made one ,I took a chance, & am glad I did
I know MOST Chinese stuff is junk, but not all of it & NO ,I would NEVER buy any motorcycle part from China,
Pete

Mu mother bought a expensive jade statue in china in 10. She watched as it was packaged and posted. When it arrived it had cracks that were in the jade itself. She had pics and clearly they weren't the same piece. She contested her card purchase but lost.
Anything I buy from CHINA I expect to fail quickly or not work at all. I would NEVER buy tools from CHINA, least of all bike parts.
Steve

swest wrote: I'm sorry, I've become JADED against CHINESE JUNK. :woohoo:
I know, I have a strange sense of humor. :whistle:
Steve

I'm with you on this issue Steve.
That statement "(expletive)'ing JUNK made in China again!" is heard often when near me too. :laugh:

It would seem lou is correct in his assertion that it probably all comes down to QA or the lack thereof with many manufacturers. Obviously not all are this way because like pete has experienced with the flashlight, I have bought some things and been pleasantly surprised that they were good or even better than I was expecting. Still, that little sticker on the bottom worries me.

wrenchmonkey wrote: ..........However, I gotta believe something like a paper element oil filter is not made by hand. Most certainly they're made by robots and industrial machines which is why I am curious. How different can a product made by a Chinese robot be from say, a Thai robot or even an Italian robot? Or is it the quality of the materials involved? Chinese paper is lower grade than (insert alternative country of origin here) paper?
Like I said; just curious. Call me the devil's advocate :evil:

Here's what I have found. The K&N filters made in Thailand (see 1st image below) each have 61 pleats and the ends of the filter media are clamped together tightly with a steel piece. The K&N filters made in China (see 2nd image below) each have 57 pleats and the ends of the filter media are glued together (just hope the glue never fails). Also, while the height of all the Thailand made filters are exactly the same, the height of the Chinese made filters vary by 3/16". I'm sure machines are used to made all the filters, but the Chinese filters contain less filter media and apparently their machines are not all calibrated to consistently produce identical filters. Ed

Here's a pic of the WIX box. Made in poland. That's good I guess. Wasn't that where the Skoda Works was the Germans wanted so much in WW II?
Steve