Oil Filters

[Priceless]

I’ve got Yanmar 315’s in my 31 and I went to the local Yanmar parts guy today to buy oil filters. When I purchased my boat the owner gave me two oil filters from Carquest among all the other stuff. They appeared to be similar. The guy at the Yanmar place today said that Yanmar doesn’t make the filters and most are made by other suppliers. My question is what is reality? Do most of you use manufacturer’s filters or are the others OK? I know that in the big picture small price to keep an expensive Diesel engine running but is their any difference? Just hate to be screwed if I’m buying the same filter. It’s been blowing for 10 days so we cant go fishing and we start thinking. Dangerous

[Tony Meola]

There are filters and then there are filters. For my Cummins I only use the recommended filters. At some thing like $9 a filter vs $4 dollars I figure the extra $10 an oil change is not worth going cheap.

I always try to use name brand filters even in my cars. Name brand to me are any of the high quality manufactures. Issue is in today's market it is tough to tell what is good.

When my father had his shop Wix was always the filter of choice. Back then they were top of the line. Fast forward 30 years and now I am told they are only so so filters.

That is why I try to stay with dealer recommended filters. With stuff being made over seas, quality control is always a concern.

[Donmystic1]

There are several studies on line about oil filters.
The worst being Fram and the best was the NAPA gold line.

[Carl]

There are several studies on line about oil filters.
The worst being Fram and the best was the NAPA gold line.

I had heard that about Fram...its a shame, I used to think Fram was synonymous with quality.

[Donmystic1]

There is a YouTube video compararing all the filters

[Priceless]

followup question. 2200hrs on my 315 running 15-40 standard Rotella. any reason to switch to the semisynthetic. I change oil every 75-100 hours

[Tony Meola]

No reason to switch as long as you maintain the right schedule on oil changes ancc use the correct oil.

[Rawleigh]

There are several studies on line about oil filters.
The worst being Fram and the best was the NAPA gold line.

The NAPA filters are made by Wix. Just drop the first letter from the Wix number and you have the NAPA number. I use them on my heavy equipment.

[MarkS]

Rawleigh is spot on! I worked for NAPA for years and they are Wix. As above the gold are the best! Why be cheap on an oil filter when it’s so crucial? There are moving parts in oil filters. Springs which bypass excessive pressure and the like. Cheap filter manufacturers use crimped steel as a spring, Wix /NAPA are physical coil springs. We used to have a cutaway at the counter. The paper some filter manufacturers used looked like Chinese newspaper. All my vehicles have NAPA filters. My $.02

[Yannis]

I use genuine Yanmar filters on my 4lha stp's. Not so pricey after all.
Plus, I believe Toyota wouldn't play around with filter quality.
The only filters that I buy from another source are the big diesel filters, not the ones on the engine.