Honda Oil Filters - questions

[gcturp]

The website www.handa-accessories.com has 2007 CRV oil filters (6-pack for $27). They're part #15400-PLM-A02 (from the photo on the website). My local honda dealer (and through estore.honda.com) has #15400-PLM-A01 (no photo, but the detailed info states they are made by/associated with Filtech Toyo Roki in Japan ($7 each).

Are the ...-A02s the Fram-made filters? and the ...-A01s the Toyo Roki-made filters?

Somewhere in these forums I read that the Toyo-Rokis are better; is that true?

Or is the difference no big deal and I should go with the great deal at h-and-a?



Thanks ahead of time for your answers and input, gcturp.
(2007 AWD LX)

[2RedV's]

Welcome to the forum! :)

Honda's OEM filters are the higher quality Fram's, not the cheap, junk ones sold for $2-$3 at auto parts stores. bobistheoilguy.com has numerous cutaways of filters and reviews.

If the factory Fram-built ones were the cheap ones, why would the typical Honda with dealer oil changes last 300,000+ miles so easily?

[Black Pearl]

The website www.handa-accessories.com has 2007 CRV oil filters (6-pack for $27). They're part #15400-PLM-A02 (from the photo on the website). My local honda dealer (and through estore.honda.com) has #15400-PLM-A01 (no photo, but the detailed info states they are made by/associated with Filtech Toyo Roki in Japan ($7 each).

Are the ...-A02s the Fram-made filters? and the ...-A01s the Toyo Roki-made filters?

Somewhere in these forums I read that the Toyo-Rokis are better; is that true?

Or is the difference no big deal and I should go with the great deal at h-and-a?



Thanks ahead of time for your answers and input, gcturp.
(2007 AWD LX)

Welcome to the forum. Your question has been a bit of a warm topic in another thread. I have bought the A02 filters from H&A and they are made by Honeywell in Canada. It turns out that Honeywell owns Fram. I don't know anything about the A01 or Toyo Roki.

There are those on this forum who will tell you that the A02 is a re-branded Fram filter and nothing but junk. I find it hard to believe that a company that is as big into engineering as Honda is going to call up Fram and say "Hey paint some of your orange canned cardboard blue and slap some Japanese writing on it to make it look authentic and ship them to the Honda dealers." We are talking about a company that designed its own antifreeze and it is going to put the almighty H on Fram junk filters? C'mon!

As Red said these cars get 300 K. Of course maybe they get 300 K out of the Toyo Roki's. Perhaps the rebranded Frams will only get you through the warranty period.

My own belief is that the A02 is a Honda OEM quality designed and quality built filter and it will work just fine. Is it as good as a Toyo Roki? Who knows, and really what difference does it make if the A02 is built to OEM standards? But this is a belief and not fact. If you find out anything concrete, let me know.

I may be terribly naive, and perhaps I'll pay the price for not listening to pearls of wisdom on these filters, but I just find it incredible that Honda is going to sell a junk oil filter for cars that they are covering on both normal and extended warranties.

[cderalow]

Welcome to the forum. Your question has been a bit of a warm topic in another thread. I have bought the A02 filters from H&A and they are made by Honeywell in Canada. It turns out that Honeywell owns Fram. I don't know anything about the A01 or Toyo Roki.

There are those on this forum who will tell you that the A02 is a re-branded Fram filter and nothing but junk. I find it hard to believe that a company that is as big into engineering as Honda is going to call up Fram and say "Hey paint some of your orange canned cardboard blue and slap some Japanese writing on it to make it look authentic and ship them to the Honda dealers." We are talking about a company that designed its own antifreeze and it is going to put the almighty H on Fram junk filters? C'mon!

As Red said these cars get 300 K. Of course maybe they get 300 K out of the Toyo Roki's. Perhaps the rebranded Frams will only get you through the warranty period.

My own belief is that the A02 is a Honda OEM quality designed and quality built filter and it will work just fine. Is it as good as a Toyo Roki? Who knows, and really what difference does it make if the A02 is built to OEM standards? But this is a belief and not fact. If you find out anything concrete, let me know.

I may be terribly naive, and perhaps I'll pay the price for not listening to pearls of wisdom on these filters, but I just find it incredible that Honda is going to sell a junk oil filter for cars that they are covering on both normal and extended warranties.

Honda designed: No
Honda used: yes

The filters aren't designed by Honda at all. They do have a minimum filtration requirement for an oil filter, which comes down to the filter medium, which is adequate to meet regular driving use for a long time assuming you do regular maintenance. The Toyo Roki filters are better at filtering particles to smaller sizes.

Having torn apart a -A02 filter, and compared it to a torn apart -A01 filter after the same amount of time and use, the -A01 filter looks much better. I've seen the -A02 filters be literally fuzzy, meaning the filter media has started to break down, which means it's potentially adding particles to the oil.

Personally I use a Mobil1 or similar filter made by Champ on my CR-V. But on my old Civic, it's nothing but -A01 Toyo Roki's... which are getting harder and harder to find.

[craig78681]

The website www.handa-accessories.com has 2007 CRV oil filters (6-pack for $27).
I'm going to hijack your question ... but just a little bit. :) I've gotten the impression from other messages here that my new CR-V might not need an oil change more than every 7,500 miles or so. If that works out to twice a year the last filter in a 6-pack might sit in my central Texas garage for over 2 years. That doesn't sound like a great idea to me. Does it matter?

[Carbuff2]

I'm going to hijack your question ... but just a little bit. :) I've gotten the impression from other messages here that my new CR-V might not need an oil change more than every 7,500 miles or so. If that works out to twice a year the last filter in a 6-pack might sit in my central Texas garage for over 2 years. That doesn't sound like a great idea to me. Does it matter?

If that bothers you, you can send the "old" filters to me....;)


Seriously, it will be OK.

[Black Pearl]

Honda designed: No
Honda used: yes

The filters aren't designed by Honda at all. They do have a minimum filtration requirement for an oil filter, which comes down to the filter medium, which is adequate to meet regular driving use for a long time assuming you do regular maintenance. The Toyo Roki filters are better at filtering particles to smaller sizes.

Having torn apart a -A02 filter, and compared it to a torn apart -A01 filter after the same amount of time and use, the -A01 filter looks much better. I've seen the -A02 filters be literally fuzzy, meaning the filter media has started to break down, which means it's potentially adding particles to the oil.

Personally I use a Mobil1 or similar filter made by Champ on my CR-V. But on my old Civic, it's nothing but -A01 Toyo Roki's... which are getting harder and harder to find.

Can you quote your source for the bolded text? If I read you correctly, Honda has no specification for oil filters other than I assume particle diameter. This is amazing. I have bought industrial filters and there are a host of specifications that one must wade through. It gave me a headache actually. Yet Honda buys oil filters for their entire fleet of vehicles (except the S2000) with no more thought than minimum filtration! I would like to see your source for this information. If there are a lot of engine failures due to poor filtration, your source could be very valuable in a class action suit against Honda. One buys car thinking that such things as oil filters have properly designed. If Honda is not properly designing these filters, I believe that there could legal recourse in the various consumer protection laws.


Just a curiosity: "I've seen the -A02 filters be literally fuzzy" How many of these oil filters have you torn apart?. Are you a tribolgist, or have some professional knowledge of filtration?

[Black Pearl]

I'm going to hijack your question ... but just a little bit. :) I've gotten the impression from other messages here that my new CR-V might not need an oil change more than every 7,500 miles or so. If that works out to twice a year the last filter in a 6-pack might sit in my central Texas garage for over 2 years. That doesn't sound like a great idea to me. Does it matter?

I bought the 6 pack. Each filter is sealed in plastic shrink wrap. My own thoughts (not fact, mind you, but thoughts) is that if you store the filter in relatively cool dry location it will be OK for several years.

The filter is 2 3/4" in diameter and 3 3/8" long. So you could store all 6 in a closet in your home with no difficulty. I would avoid hot locations like attics or damp basements.

If you are concerned, ask the vendor if there is a shelf life on the filter.

[Quill]

Along with the questions on oil filters; I have a question on filter size. I have an 98 CRV and the filter that has been on it is smaller than the one recommended by the Napa catalogs. They list a 1334 for it and that is what I have used on the several Accords and on my last Civic which was a 94. The Honda service center that the previous owner used installed the smaller filter that crosses references to the 1356 which is for a 2002. By the way I only use Napa Gold filters. They are made by Wix and are extremely good filters. I think I paid $7 for it.

[2RedV's]

Along with the questions on oil filters; I have a question on filter size. I have an 98 CRV and the filter that has been on it is smaller than the one recommended by the Napa catalogs. They list a 1334 for it and that is what I have used on the several Accords and on my last Civic which was a 94. The Honda service center that the previous owner used installed the smaller filter that crosses references to the 1356 which is for a 2002. By the way I only use Napa Gold filters. They are made by Wix and are extremely good filters. I think I paid $7 for it.
Not knowing what those numbers mean - have you compared an actual Honda filter to the "Napa" filter? Other than that, why not use the 2002-2003 Honda S2000 filter, as approved by Honda themselves for use on the CR-V? It is larger and higher quality than the OE 97-2006 filters. (Not sure of the 2007/2008 filters as of today)

[Carbuff2]

I have a question on filter size. I have an 98 CRV and the filter that has been on it is smaller than the one recommended by the Napa catalogs. They list a 1334 for it and that is what I have used on the several Accords and on my last Civic which was a 94. The Honda service center that the previous owner used installed the smaller filter that crosses references to the 1356 which is for a 2002. By the way I only use Napa Gold filters. They are made by Wix and are extremely good filters. I think I paid $7 for it.

You didn't mention your oil filter change habits ;) but if you change it every time you change your oil you are probably OK.

Remember that Honda filters have enough capacity to be replaced every other oil change. Thus reducing the cost of OEM even more.

That said, Wix (or the NAPA Gold equivalent) are good filters. A good filter will pack a lot more filtering media into the case than the cheapos.

The factory filter (at least on my Japan-made V) was really TINY. A real pain to remove 'cause it was too tight and I didn't have a filter wrench that small! :mad:

[Quill]

I change my filter every oil change. It is not that big of an expense. Thanks for the info on the small filter. Now I have to buy a fourth filter wrench.:rolleyes: I used Channel-Locks to get this one off. As for oil changes, I usually do it between 6000 and 7000 miles depending on its use. Dirty and cold stop and go situations require quicker changes. Usually between 4000 and 5000 miles. You will notice there is a variance of a 1000 miles. With three vehicles and three motorcycles and my son's stuff time can be a factor.

By the way, I worked for Napa when the Gold Filters came on the market and have seen the cutaways between the Golds and Frams. That is back in the days when most imports were hated.