Oil Filter Review

[coll0412]

After now having bought I think every oil filter availible I have come to one conclusion....

The autozone filter are terrible.

I have used OEM Suzuki filters now for awhile, but saw a post last year how autozone carries a fitler for the GS.

After I changed the oil, I decided to take a good look at the filter to see how much metal was in there, and since I had the OEM filter from the pervious change I also thought I would compare.

Upon taking apart both here are the similarties and differences

Similarties
1. Same number of pleats in the filter media
2. Same number and size of holes in the media support tube
3. All metal bypass valve

Differences(here is the good stuff)
1. The Autozone filter thickness is 1/3 the thickess of the OEM filter
2. The bypass valve had already worked itslef very loose, i could easly depress it all the way in with my finger, I discovered that they use a spring with about 3 coiles, vs the OEM spring having at least 5 or 6 coils, and the OEM after the same amount of time in the engine and then more time spent in the drain pan was still very stiff(which is very simialr to the brand new NAPA filter I bought)

All in all the Autozone filter really sucks, and since the OEM filter is really only a few more dollars more, it is really worth the protection.

When it stops raining here I will take some pictures of the above things, but I was impressed with the NAPA filter. It had a soft silicone or rubber bypass valve so it probably seals much better, the spring behind it had like 4 or 5 coils. The filter media seemed a bit thin, but it had 2X the number of pleats as the OEM or Autozone filter. At $6.79, however, I think I would just buy the OEM again.

[Mandres]

Yea, I use OEM filters on all my vehicles.  They're just better quality parts, and it's convenient to order 10 at a time and not have to worry about availability when it's time for a change.