Another NAPA (...crappa!) filter rant

[Mark Rinker]

So I am trying to support a friend that has ventured out on his own and start his own auto repair business...he sources parts locally from NAPA, O'Reilly's, etc. and I have been bit (again) by a NAPA filter they installed while doing routine oil and lube services.

I'll spare you the long story and sordid details of the PITA this was last week while on the road with an oversize boat behind me, but suffice to say the final culprit was air leaking in around the WIF sensor on the bottom of the filter.

The 'NAPA CRAPPA' filter in question is black plastic, and tapered/narrower than OEM Delco white metal canister filters. An informed source says they are a 'single pass filter medium and manufactured by WIX.' GM has a bulletin out warning of air intrusion caused by some aftermarket filters and poorly sealing / shrinking o-rings.

Bright spot of the day? Getting to flog a new Chevrolet VOLT while I was waiting. :D They will go 100mph on battery, I'm here to tell ya.

[GMC D-Max]

Bright spot of the day? Getting to flog a new Chevrolet VOLT while I was waiting. :D They will go 100mph on battery, I'm here to tell ya.


Yeah, but for how many seconds? :p

[Mark Rinker]

Exactly. It was at a full charge and I was gone only for about 15 minutes. It came back wheezing and burning gasoline. :D

[cowboywildbill]

I was watching a show some time back about the so called "Green" electric cars. Intersting that more polution is caused by the plants generating AC to make the electricity to charge the cars and then when the batteries reach thier end of service the recycling or disposal is worse than an all gas compact high mpg model causes in total polution. Plus the fact that the batteries cost so much to replace that overall they aren't nearly as cost efficient as a high gas mpg compact is.Some cost for charging can be eased by solar chargers though! Maybe they will get better as time goes by? But I think Hydrogen would be the way to go. Interesting.

[Mark Rinker]

Who would have thought 10yrs ago how tightly coupled our transportation choices would become to world politics, due to energy costs?

The VOLT makes more sense in a pessimistic future view of $150+/barrel oil. Right now, the gas hybrids make alot of sense...my wifes 39-41mpg Lincoln MKZ has made a believer out of me.

TDI Diesel hybrids (http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/03/the-golf-tdi-di.html)...now that could be 60+mpg cars.

[convert2diesel]

Who would have thought 10yrs ago how tightly coupled our transportation choices would become to world politics, due to energy costs?

The VOLT makes more sense in a pessimistic future view of $150+/barrel oil. Right now, the gas hybrids make alot of sense...my wifes 39-41mpg Lincoln MKZ has made a believer out of me.

TDI Diesel hybrids (http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/03/the-golf-tdi-di.html)...now that could be 60+mpg cars.

Don't be too critical of the battery life. The Volt only has a 15kwhr battery pack. That equates into 20hp for 1 hour, 40hp for 1/2 hour, or 80 hp for 15 minutes. As you indicated, the car will do over 100 MPH. Probably used 80hp or more to accomplish that.

From an environmental point of view, your all correct. Current battery technology is an environmental cluster bomb and the medium that produces the power varies directly with location. Here in Ontario, most of our power comes from either Niagara Falls or from nukes so the pollution is marginal.

The real benifit here is we are centralizing the power generation. Its alot easier to control the emmissions from one large source than 3 million small sources.

What is not taken into account is the power we are using to charge these things is not yet being taxed (ie. road tax) and in alot of cases is not subject to commodity pricing. We are still buying electricity far below the per BTU pricing of liquid fuels. That will inevitably change but maybe by that time we will have access to home based solar and wind that makes sense. Certainly the current grid will have a hard time keeping up if everyone were to increase their consumption by 15 kwhrs per day or more.

From what I have seen, the Volt is an incredible piece of technolgy that finally got the methodolgy right. Should have been paired with a diesel but that is another story. The weak link is still the batteries but I'm sure, given the chance, this too will improve.

Bill

[kglenn]

Has your friend tried to request that they send him a old style metal filter. My B-law orders a lot of his parts from them and has been able to get me the old style. May just be old inventory.

[carco]

OK, the NAPA filter should have been a WIX filter in NAPA numbering. I asked Wix for the micron value of their Duramax filter and was emailed that it was a 5 micron filter. That alone is enough for me to pass on a Wix/napa filter. GM specs call for a 2 micron filter.
Wix filters are good filters Normally but there are a few undesirable filters in their lineup.

In an off brand note, Ford/IHC 6.0 and 6.4 oil and fuel filters; there are 3 good acceptable filters, Motorcraft/Ford, Navistar/IHC, and Fleetguard that makes the filters. DO NOT use any other brand unless you know positively they meet specs of filtering and dimensional size.

[Kactuss]

I have a Wix filter in 07 Chev for the first time, so far so good.
A friend of mine got a deal on some filters, After a 1000mile his 07 Chev wouldn't rev over 2000 rpm, he changed the fuel filter and the truck was back to normal, it doesn't pay to buy paper filters.

Pete