If you’re like most vehicle owners, changing your car’s oil filter is probably the last thing on your list. Many vehicle owners may still overlook the importance of changing the oil filter regularly. The main function of an oil filter is to help remove dirt and hazardous internal elements from your car engine’s oil that can accumulate over time and damage the bearing surfaces in the engine.
When it comes to increasing the life of your car’s engine oil, choosing the right oil filter is important to achieve high filtration performance while ensuring a smooth flow of engine oil. (Also check out our Article on The 4 Worst Oil Filter Brands to Avoid to Preserve your Car Engine)
Generally speaking, using the wrong filter can lead to serious engine damage such as the engine drying out, oil leak, engine performance degraded, and many more. It’s important to check your engine’s manual before choosing the oil filter for your vehicle. Even the wrong oil filter can be deceiving, just because the threads line up and look like it fits properly, doesn’t mean that it is the right type.
Quality oil filters can help remove contaminants from your car engine’s oil that can accumulate over time, keeping your engine clean. However, to achieve that, you need to make sure that your oil filter is inspected and changed regularly. There are 4 factors to consider when choosing oil filters; size and capture efficiency, dirt-holding capacity, pressure-flow, and design integrity. Whether for a gasoline or diesel engine, these factors are essential as they affect how your vehicle oil filter functions. Based on these 4 factors, here are the 4 best oil filters for extended drain intervals.
4 Best Oil Filters for Extended Drain Intervals
1. Purolater BOSS
Purolator oil filter is one of the best selling oil filters for the past few years due to their premium engine protection against damages and ruptures from road debris for everyday drivers and routine driving conditions. This oil filter works well with all oil types, especially full synthetic oil.
Purolator uses a smart fusion of full synthetic media to last longer between oil changes. A BOSS filter has a 27 gram dirt removal capacity and can last up to 20,000 miles. They also hold almost 2x the amount (vs 15g) of contaminants than their already excellent PurolatorONE filters.
2. Royal Purple Extended Life Premium Oil Filter
The Royal Purple Extended Life Premium Oil Filter is built smarter and stronger therefore causes it to outperform in the toughest conditions. This brand specializes in lubricants for a variety of vehicles. Since 1986, the brand has put enormous efforts into gathering a loyal user base.
Royal Purple manufactures only one type of oil filter – the super-premium Extended Life Oil Filter, designed to perform as the best oil filter available. This filter is engineered to match superior particle removal with optimized flow thus maximum engine protection and filter life.
Slathered in their trademark purple color, these filters use a smart fusion of full synthetic motor oil to last longer between oil changes and can last up to 15,000 miles. The Royal Purple Extended Life Premium Oil Filter also claims to achieve a 99% filtration efficiency at 25 microns or larger when combined with synthetic oil.
3. Mobil 1 Extended Performance Oil Filter
This extended performance oil filter from Mobil is well-suited to vehicles with longer oil change intervals. They are made from a synthetic fiber that has a 99.6% efficiency rating and a 28-gram capacity, which is double the amount of most other oil filters. This is one of the best filters for trapping small particles of contaminants.
They can also withstand up to 9x the normal system operating pressure up to 615 Pascals. It has a silicone anti-drain back valve to prevent dry starts. Most latest model-year engines are compatible to use this oil filter.
4. Fram Ultra Synthetic
Known for their affordable quality oil and air filters, Fram Ultra Synthetic developed a long lasting oil filter especially for synthetic oils. With a 99%+ direct removal efficiency at particles larger than 20 microns. With its over-the-top features, it’s not surprising to see it in the list of top sellers.
The manufacturer states this filter can last longer between oil changes, up to 20,000 miles. Despite its affordable price, Fram Ultra Synthetic is arguably the best synthetic oil filter for the money
All About Extended Oil Drain Intervals
Most vehicle owners still believe that the motor’s oil should be changed once every 5000 miles. Long gone is the recommendation to change your oil every 3,000 miles. But it’s not that simple. There are usually two sets of oil change intervals manufactured into the vehicle: one of them is measured in miles (or kilometers) while the other one is measured in time (months). Keep in mind that both are important.
The first one is pretty self explanatory, the more the oil is used the more its additive reserves get exhausted and depleted, causing the long chain hydrocarbon molecules to get torn apart, which is the main reason for oil change.
But why does time matter? When the vehicle is parked the oil is not used after all. That is true, but as the oil is often used, it also gets contaminated. As a result, dirt, fuel, metal particles, and other elements start to accumulate over time in the oil. Deposits form, oxidation occurs, its viscosity changes, even its pH value changes. Since these are caused by the accumulation of unwanted contaminants, the process goes on and on, even when the engine is turned off.
Extended drain intervals can be the result of several factors: quality oil formulations, filter designs and materials, as well as manufacture of the vehicles themselves, materials, and technology as automotive technology has advanced at warp speed over the years. But no matter how complex our vehicles have become, they still need regular service and maintenance to keep them running smoothly and efficiently.That means thorough maintenance of motor oil and other fluids, items such as filters and tires.
In conclusion, not changing the oil regularly is a slow killer for your engine as oil plays an important part in keeping your vehicle running smoothly as it should for years to come.
How Oil Filters Can Help Extend Drain Intervals
High diesel and crude oil are always the go-to choice as engine oil prices have increased too much, making it not attractive for vehicle owners. However, extended oil drain strategies are becoming more common these days due to their convenience and affordable price.
During normal engine operation, the oil becomes contaminated and can lead to engine failure if not changed regularly. This is where oil filters come in as they remove dirt and other hazardous elements from the oil, which slowly become saturated. If not regularly filtered and changed, the accumulation of those contaminants in the oil filter will build , which makes it harder to remove contaminants and eventually affects the engine’s performance.
The standard for long change intervals is every 5,000 to 8,000 miles for most cars and the reason has to do with maintaining the integrity and performance of the engine, and also the protection of the oil and filter that affects the engine’s sensitive parts. However, many new automated engines have changed their mentality and come with long oil drain intervals and this has advanced over the past few years. Thanks to construction equipment filters like oil filters, vehicles now can extend their drain intervals. These now come with up to 40,000 to 50,000 mile drains for on-highway applications. We now know what it takes to help the car run smoothly and with faster speed.
Of course, the extending of oil drain intervals is always a balancing act. Nowadays, bringing in trucks for changing the oil after 50,000 miles or more is not necessary as you just need to inspect how to lube chassis components and to do inspections such as performing oil analysis on a regular basis.
Many vehicles can accept larger oil filters. All things being equal, large oil filters have the capacity to help vehicles extend their drain intervals, providing more filtration media and higher oil capacities, which means greater dirt holding capacity and therefore longer filtered flow.
Still, even with improvements in motor oils and filters, there is still so much debate over extended drain intervals. Should vehicle owners risk opening the prospect of a failure into your vehicle’s lubrication system by changing the oil and filter at a specific range? Just because the manufacturers of the products or even your vehicle’s manual suggests that it should?
When motor manufacturers put together a new model of vehicle, or introduce a product, they have been extensively tested under all conditions. When you look at your oil filters, you can rest assured since it has been tested over thousands of vehicles and thousands of miles. Generally however, this is more a matter for people interested in protecting the structural integrity of the media and maximizing every detail of their vehicle performance.
Benefits of an extended oil filter
Longer filter Life
Extended oil filters are becoming more popular due to its many benefits such as more filter capacity, efficiency, and compatibility with synthetic oils. Extended oil filters have the ability to capture and hold more debris as it is likely to encounter in its service in life.
The most obvious advantage of an extended oil filter is its longevity as this filter will provide maximum filtration for an extended duration. Most late-model vehicles work well with this type of oil filter, as it has extended oil change intervals.
Heavy duty construction
Traditional oil filters are made of cellulose. Modern, extended oil filters on the other hand are made of synthetic micro-glass that has a 99% efficiency rating. It has a thick shell that provides extra protection against damages and ruptures from road debris and is designed to prevent oil from leaking due to its metal end caps to seal in the filter assembly. Since extended oil filters are designed to last longer, they are built tougher.
Innovations in the heavy-duty oil filter segment are highly focused on providing safe and efficient vehicle operation since extended oil filters help keep your oil free from contaminants, so it does a better job of protecting your engine and positively affecting return on investment for any size construction operation.
The Keys to Choosing Oil Filters
Lubricants
Filtration is an essential process for the proper functioning of various engine and machine components. It helps remove contaminants and other solid particles from your car engine’s oil that can accumulate over time and damage the bearing surfaces in the engine, affecting the performance of the equipment.
There are two main categories: conventional and permanent filters. Made of cellulose or “paper” impregnated with phenolic resin,conventional filters have lower quality compared with permanent filters.
Permanent filters are made for greater durability as they have an internal and external purifier, which performs oil filtration, acting on extending its useful life and reducing changes.
Filter media
When it comes to increasing the life of your car’s engine oil, choosing the right oil filter with a filtration media is important to achieve high filtration performance while ensuring a smooth flow of engine oil.
Oil is the foundation of an engine. In this vital system, the engine oil filter is important to protect the engine by capturing and removing harmful contaminants from the oil through the service interval.
When buying oil filters, keep in mind that every filter has a material inside it that handles the filtration procedure. The material or media can be cellulose, synthetic, or both. Synthetic media commonly use glass, polyester, or nylon as they have a tight oven structure.
For extended drains, high filter efficiency is important for effectively removing the contaminants that are known to damage the engine’s components over the time. The filter needs to have the capacity to hold this contaminant throughout the desired service interval and beyond.
Oil analysis
When it comes to extending drain intervals, the vehicle’s oil is a key component to the durability and longevity of an engine’s pistons, rings, and bearings.
An accurate and comprehensive lab analysis is an effective way to determine an optimal lube interval because it accounts for operating circumstances, maintenance practices, the quality of oil used, and other elements that vary and are specific to a vehicle’s engine.
Conclusion
And there you have it, from the top four best oil filters mentioned above, we hope that this guide is helpful to find the right oil filter for your vehicle. Keep in mind that spending a little more on high-performance oil filters will save you both time and money in the long run, while also protecting your engine more efficiently.
