Mobil 1 Extended Performance Oil Filters - beware !

[jamman]

Had the weirdest problem..

I changed my oil and filter last week and used a Mobil 1 Extended Performance Oil Filter this time ..

Drove the car for a week with no problems or oil leaks ...

Last night I was crusin down the road at ~70 mph and a hear a faint noise like a stream of water underneath the dash ..

The engine starts to gradually loose power and I notice the oil pressure rapidly dropping so I killed the engine and coasted to the side of the road ..

There is blue smoke rolling from underneath the hood. I thought that maybe the oil filter worked loose or the dip stick blew out, but the filter was still nice a tight and dip stick was fine ..

Had it towed home, threw it on the jack and noticed that the seal on the oil filter had a ripple that looked funny that popped out just a little at the edge.

Topped off the engine with oil, disconnected the coil and turned it over and sure enough it came pouring out around the oil filter seal.

The seals on these filters are much thicker than other oil filters, like 2-3 times thicker so it may be that they cannot hold the pressure or maybe I got a bad one.

I took the filter off and the seal looks fine visually but I will never use this filter again that's for sure.

Drained the remaining oil, saw no sludge or discoloration, put on a new Napa filter and refilled with Mobil 1, drove her around for awhile then to work today with no issues, pressure seems the same (at the "A") as before with no knocking or new noises from the engine ...

So I just wanted to caution everyone on my experience ...

[SVO9844]

filter

Stick to the Motorcraft FL-300.

[Chuck]

Great! Not ten minutes ago I changed oil and installed a Mobil-1 filter. I checked my log book and the previous oil change was only 2200 miles ago but it was 10/28/1996! I'll have to keep an eye on this filter until I can get a proven one.

[BrianO]

strange if the seal is thicker than others that it can't hold the pressure..probably just a defective one or possibly the seal from the first filter stuck on there when it was changed.

[Chuck]

...or possibly the seal from the first filter stuck on there when it was changed.

I've seen plenty of those!

[Erics SVO]

Stick to the Motorcraft FL-300.

Provided you can find them.

[GAboySVO]

Provided you can find them.

Walmart has them all the time here in GA.

[Erics SVO]

Haven't seen them anywhere around here forever. I have one sitting in the shed from when I lived in WV...

[NY eric]

Provided you can find them.

I just checked stock and we have 2 cases of them and my dealer had 8 cases. how many do you want?

They were one of the most popular filters for ford (next to the FL1A of course) I dont see ford stopping the sale of these anytime soon.

[90lx86svo]

The company I work for sells a few million (litterally) oil filters a year (including Mobil 1) and I have not heard any issues concerning leaky filters. You would be surprised how few US oil filter manufacurers there are. I would never have a second thought about using M1 filters.

[RTStabler51]

I've run the M1 on my car the last year or so and have had no issues, and 90% of my mileage has been doing HPDEs. Just because there was 1 bum one doesn't mean to condemn the whole product.

[jamman]

I made sure the surface of the oil cooler was totally clean and nothing left from the old filter ..

The seal on the Mobil-1 extended life was surprisingly thick and spongy

Again maybe I got a bad one ..

[jamman]

I'm not trying to bash these but in 30 years of changing my own oil I have never had something like this happen, so I wanted to at least put it on the radar for what it's worth ..

[jamman]

For what's its worth here's a low res pic with the arrow pointing to where the seal popped ..

[90lx86svo]

If you still have the filter you can call 800-882-0890 and get it tested.