Oil and filter quality

[bmcnut]

Ive been out today to get service bits for my daily. I usualy make a point of getting decent brand oil and filters but this time settled for the cheaper of triple QX oil 5w30 and crossland filters. I didnt bother checking them until i got home, but when I did the filters just look.... cheap. Ive had a look online and have seen mixed reviews from "nothing wrong with them" to "Your engine will blow up". So of course now I'm thinking should i take them back and exchange them for something decent, or am I worrying about nothing, there cant possibly be anything on the market thats actualy rubbish can there? The car does about 40 miles a day.

[xbl]

The triple QX is made by Shell, I ran my TFSI Leon on it for 3 years with no issues, the filters are all made to OEM specs afaik.

[tristanh]

I only use OE or Mann, Mahle Knecht or very similar. The price difference between a good filter and an unknown is negligible.

[surprisingskoda]

Cheap filters are cheap. Doesn't matter in an older engine that uses sludge but it does in anything that needs fully synthetic or has a turbo (give or take).
The material in them doesn't filter as well, there's less surface area and they can break up being lower quality.

[Dez]

Price ain’t necessarily a reflection of quality when it comes to filters. Watch some of the YouTube comparison vids on the subject, often the premium or even performance brands are actually the worst on the market. Fram and k&n in particular have take a hammering in recent years.
Filter material quality and amount is important, but how the relief valve works is also super critical.

I’d agree with the above poster who says its hard to go wrong with Mann. Although who’s best is often down to specific application.

[bmcnut]

Cheers for the input guys, my view was pretty much a combination of all the above posts lol, The last ones i got were mann, and that would have been my choice this time had I not been thinking of going with the cheaper oil. I'm not bothered about the oil too much, its going to be good enough at doing its job and if its made by shell as xbl said then ive nothing to worry about there. Id be more concerned about the filters doing their jobs properly, especialy the oil filter, its more down to the time it takes me to get there and exchange them than the cost, probably worth it for peace of mind.

[ChasR]

Some cars are funny on filters. The Mk3 Ford Mondeos for example will only live for a long time if certain filters are used ; In this case, Delphi, Genuine Ford or a premium Bosch filter ; they do two qualities of filter. Anything else? You may as well throw a petrol tank in the car or throw good money away. I've seen the TDCIs do over 200k on the correct filters with no injector issues. Conversely, I've seen many trash their fuel pumps, and subsequently trash every component of the fuel system. People will normally change the injectors first, and then notice that the fuel pump goes soon after. After a while, the car doesn't run, as the fuel lines are full of swarf.

On that conversation, I stopped using Tripple QX after a Mondeo believe it or not. It was definitely noisier on Triple QX than it ever was on Mobil 1. Prior to using Triple QX, I changed the oil with Mobil or Halfords own brand for 100k prior to that. We bought the car on 133k and took it to 322k, so we had an idea of what worked and what didn't, especially as it wasn't the first time or Modneo we did that with. It may have been fine on Triple QX, but considering the engine was much quieter on Mobil, that sealed the deal for me.

Someone did say that Triple QX is recycled curse word. Shell may make it, but it may not be to the same standard as their own brand. Most people here could take a Conti Sport Contact 6 and a Uniroyal RainSport 3 and tell the difference ; despite both being made/owned by Continental; even my sister could and she's not even a car person, or a tyre geek!

[bmcnut]

Yeah id read that someone said it was recycled curse word, but I find that hard to believe. It may be so and if it is then i certainly wouldnt use it. Ive just seen some of the filter tests on youtube and now I'm paranoid lol

[Woofwoof]

The Crossland filter brand name was bought by ECP's a few years ago... I wouldn't use them for that reason. Imo, it's always worth buying a well known premium filter for the sake of a few extra quid.

[ChasR]

Mar 25, 2019 22:52:54 GMT bmcnut said:

Yeah id read that someone said it was recycled curse word, but I find that hard to believe. It may be so and if it is then i certainly wouldnt use it. Ive just seen some of the filter tests on youtube and now I'm paranoid lol

Of course, I can't be held responsible, but it will be fine for the mileage you do until the next oil change .

[dreadspeed]

I always use Mann filters and valvoline oil in my triumph, but have noticed how short some of the other filters are now and wondered if theres even enough filtation material in there to do the job for the milage specified,

[steveo3002]

Mar 25, 2019 22:45:52 GMT ChasR said:

Some cars are funny on filters. The Mk3 Ford Mondeos for example will only live for a long time if certain filters are used ; In this case, Delphi, Genuine Ford or a premium Bosch filter ; they do two qualities of filter. Anything else? You may as well throw a petrol tank in the car or throw good money away. I've seen the TDCIs do over 200k on the correct filters with no injector issues. Conversely, I've seen many trash their fuel pumps, and subsequently trash every component of the fuel system. People will normally change the injectors first, and then notice that the fuel pump goes soon after. After a while, the car doesn't run, as the fuel lines are full of swarf.

On that conversation, I stopped using Tripple QX after a Mondeo believe it or not. It was definitely noisier on Triple QX than it ever was on Mobil 1. Prior to using Triple QX, I changed the oil with Mobil or Halfords own brand for 100k prior to that. We bought the car on 133k and took it to 322k, so we had an idea of what worked and what didn't, especially as it wasn't the first time or Modneo we did that with. It may have been fine on Triple QX, but considering the engine was much quieter on Mobil, that sealed the deal for me.

Someone did say that Triple QX is recycled curse word. Shell may make it, but it may not be to the same standard as their own brand. Most people here could take a Conti Sport Contact 6 and a Uniroyal RainSport 3 and tell the difference ; despite both being made/owned by Continental; even my sister could and she's not even a car person, or a tyre geek!

i tried some triple qx and swear the engine sounded like a bag of spanners , knowing ecp doesnt exactly pride themselves on selling the finest quality it made my mind up to not use it again

[bmcnut]

Cheers for the input everyone. Ive decided to use what ive got and see how it goes, if I don't like what i hear ill get a mann filter and decent oil and do it again in a few weeks and treat this as a flush.

[bmcnut]

Well i done it, it sounds fine but it would do being new oil. The oil was slightly overdue so it wont do it any harm to change it again in a month or so. When I got the car last year I bought an aftermarket magnetic sump plug for it, that was nice and clean so no problems there. When I put it back in I was reminded that putting a magnetic sump plug back in a steel sump is a bit of a game when you cant see the hole.

[duggers]

I used Triple QX and crossland filters in my old TDi Sharan for 120k and all was good, sold at 198k still working well.

[Phil H]

Mar 25, 2019 23:51:43 GMT Woofwoof said:

The Crossland filter brand name was bought by ECP's a few years ago... I wouldn't use them for that reason. Imo, it's always worth buying a well known premium filter for the sake of a few extra quid.

Ok then - that’s sealed my decision never to use them again. I used them years ago when they were good so followed the name. Another one on the “not on your nelly” filter list (with Fram and Champion).

[Dez]

Ecp are rampantly buying up ‘known’ brands and turning them to wibblepoo. Pagid was one of their victims, and I'm not sure what’s going on with the brembo they sell but the quality of it seems very sub-par to me compared to other ‘lesser’ brands sold elsewhere.

[rallyboy]

I've used Triple QX for the last 4 years in my race car. Was the correct spec so didn't worry about it. Admittedly it gets changed every 250 competition miles or thereabouts but at 8500rpm & maybe warmer than it should be, it has a pretty hard life. After 2000 miles the engine went back for a refresh and apparently "was like new" internally.
The oil that comes out of the race car then gets used to top up the road car - which now has 249k miles on it (on LPG).
Nothing wrong with Triple QX in my experience.