Recently, I went to Walmart to grab oil change stuff for a few vehicles, and I saw that all their Purolator filters were marked down to $1.50 each. So I stocked up.
I've been curious as to why they stopped carrying them, so I did some investigating. They discontinued them in all brick and mortar stores, but they are available online. Weird. In my searching, I also found a lot of people complaining that the filter media in these filters are tearing away from the metal end caps. Like this:
As far as I can tell, all of the posts on various forums were made around 2014, and the filters in question were manufactured in 2013.
Here's the thing: I've been using Purolator filters both Classic and PureOne) on everything for years. I've found them to be a good filter on all sorts of vehicles. I've never had any issues. The most common filter to fail is actually the L10241, which is the one for my Mazda 3 (and a lot of Honda vehicles too). I usually go 7500 miles between oil changes on my Mazda running 0w20 full synthetic, and I have been since it was new. 90% of the time, I've used one of these filters. There's one on every vehicle I have in my fleet right now.
Should I be worried about this? Does it even matter?
Saw your response in the other thread, im with you ive been using them for years, torn purolator is better than a new orange fram in my book though. When i first read on the issue i can across someone on maybe bobistheoilguy saying in total a tear is only a tiny percentage of the filter media as a whole. But still thinking if less resistance is at the whole more fluid would go through? Im HOPING they already sorted the problem out cause like you said most the issues were seen 2 years or so ago.
Guess i have to go to oreilleys to get my cheap good filter fix (saw long ago that wix, purolator, and bosch one are all made in the same factory and identical) but dang walmart was so convenient and cheap. Im hoping its not discontinued forever!
Edit: i guess i should answer your question, id still run them just get a filter cutter or whatever you want to cut them open when you take them off to check them. I know its info after the thought (its already done filtering) but its good to be able to check them to know if you got a good batch or bad.
They changed the design over last summer, but not enough people have cut the new ones open yet to know if it's really fixed.
FWIW, the higher end synthetic media Purolators don't have the tearing issue. I've been mostly using those and Fram ultras lately to stay away from this issue and various other concerns people have found with cheaper filters.
