I guess that I'm probably the last to know, but did anyone else hear about Fram Filters filing for bankruptcy?
I'd been wondering why the filter stocks at my local Walmart had been down for the past month. But when I went to another store and saw their shelves were empty also, I looked it up. Apparently, Fram's founder ran off with between 700 million and 1 billion dollars. The company is now "restructuring" and stores like Walmart and Autozone have been emptying their inventory.

I've been using their products my whole car owning life. Now I'm going to have to figure something else out.
Oh well.

 

YES fram is now gone, we have been using napa gold filters at our shop for a while. I believe wix makes them for napa. They have very good reviews.

 

x2 on the NAPA Gold filters, and yes they are made by Wix.

 

I use Wix filters now. Fram probably stopped building a quality filter 30 years ago. I thought they were included in that big automotive company bankruptcy last year?

 

^^x2^^

Excerpts stolen from the World Wide Web:

 

[QUOTE=chip-powell;1680845. Now I'm going to have to figure something else out.
Oh well.[/QUOTE]
I have been using AC Delco filters on GM vehicles since I started driving in 1966 They have not failed me to this point.

 

I wouldn't be sure if napa gold filters are in fact wix. There is some debate over that currently.

The oil fllter market has been churned. Kinda like some other markets.

 

I actually use Chinese filters for a bunch of my vehicles. Fram other than the synthetic were junk, although they recently changed them for the better before disappearing. The A Premium are a very high Chinese quality filter and cheap, last 4 pack on sale was $3 and change each. I cut one open for the Olds V8 and a 51258 Wix. It was every bit as good as the Wix, maybe better in some, like can thickness. The Wix is replacing the multiple Fram at places like Canadian Tire up here. If they are in stock, I will consider them. A bunch Canadian Tire filters and other brands were Champ Labs filters of various quality. The supply is running out on them all. The cheap Napa Proformer are Chinese but actually are decent quality. The Chinese Castrol Synthetic filters are very high quality and better built at less cost than most premium filters. Hopefully Premium Guard who bought the Fram/Champ Labs factory starts making filters there. Autolite spark plugs and Trico wiper blades are also gone along with Raybestos brakes, I believe.

 

I have been using Wix for many years. Purolator is another good filter.

 

Didn't Fram oil filters used to be called, the "orange can of death." I use Wix on my Olds.

 

🙂

 

Ive been using Wix for a while, but only because I dont track down the Baldwins. Ive heard the Baldwin filters are much more superior to most, even Wix.

Ive not heard one good thing about Fram in the last 20 years. Unfortunate, really..their OH plant is about an hour from me. Well..was.

 

I must be in the complete minority here. I've been using Fram on all of my cars for over 40 years. I've never had any issues with them. Granted, I almost religiously changed the oil/filter every 3000 miles on my older cars and every 6000 on the newer (post 2000) ones. The air filter got changed every 10000. No problems.

Like I said before... Oh well. I guess that I have to figure out something new to use. From the posts, it sounds like Wix is the way to go.

 

I've used the O'Reilly's brand MicroGuard filters before when I don't have a Wix on hand. They're probably as lame as Fram... was.

 

NAPA Gold is not made by WIX anymore

 

This likely shows that regular maintenance is the key.

 

I put Purolator on my vehicles.

 

Mike is correct. Mann + Hummel no longer makes filters for NAPA.
WIX (Mann + Hummel) and Baldwin are the best in the biz.
Do a little homework on what makes a filter high vs low quality. There are a few others that are rank well...Purolator is one of them.
Baldwin is commercial grade. Look for a fleet oil & filter or big truck supplier they'll have Baldwins. The extra long one too.

 

I cut the top of a Wix filter off to see the innards (from my 71 98). I thought about keeping it on my desk at work with my stash of treasures but I didn't think the oil mess would be appreciated by the boss and I didn't want anyone to cut themselves on the metal canister.