Napa gold (cellulose) after two track days:

 

is that good or bad?

 

Looks fabulous. Now we know why they call it "gold" - it's the color inside!

For laughs I pored through my BMW owner's manual looking for any advice on oil/filter change intervals on cars that don't get driven much. I found something!
It says: If you drive "much less than 6,000 miles per year" you should still change the oil every 2 years. Wow. Pretty lax
For perspective, that car has a friggin 7 quart oil capacity, and the filter is about 3 times the size of these little things that we are talking about here. German engineering you know! The "normal use" oil change interval they specify is every 15,000 miles, and of course they are assuming you use a synthetic oil with BMW LL-01 approval.

 

Visual inspection is kinda useless IMO unless it's gummed up or something. I wasn't expecting it to look like much, but since I'm trying to change my oil after every event I figured I might as well cut it open.

Without a microscope (I don't care that much) I have no idea what sort of shape the media is actually in upon removal.

 

Haha. Gotcha. At least you can tell it physically holds up. That's a plus.

 

I think it's interesting that no one had mentioned this filter:







I picked one up to run in the evo. I might have to buy another and do a test on it. The price was very reasonable (<$11 shipped via Amazon) for a 100% synthetic media filter.

A quick feel of the housing seems like it might be a bit thicker or more sturdy than the PL14459 synthetic blend filter (gold) that I tester earlier.

 

^Test it and report back

Reminds me, I changed my erl yesterday and used my last Purolator gold filter which means I need to stock up again.

Do they have those in the chain stores or solely online?

 

I think you can get the Purolator gold filters at the usual car part stores.

 

I don't think I've seen them but and then again I've never looked for them so...

I'd be curious how it stacks up in your test **cough**hint**cough**

I've been rockin' the PL14459 since you conducted this test as they seem to kill it in terms of bang for the buck. I'm not one to cheap out on stuff like this but it appeared they had similar filtration to the more expensive ones but didn't have the extended use ability which doesn't concern me since my oil is changed quite often anyway.

So about that test...should I pp you some moniezzz

 

No need to send any money, I'll probably get to testing one of these anyway.

Thing is, it probably won't be until late spring/early summer 2015. We're getting ready to sell the house and move to a bigger place, so things will be a bit tumultuous for a while. Besides, the testing process is a pain in the *** so I'm in no rush.

 

BTOG forums seem to report torn media for the Purolator gold. People seem to think a certain batch from a certain date is effected. I switched to Fram ultra(100% synth. Media) about $9 @ Walmart. I will this week cut open my Purolator gold and report my findings. Also got one(purolator gold) for the wife's car that will be taken off this week and cut open.

 

For us on the west coast, pepboys and K- mart have the gold. I'm not sure if kragen o'Reilly's has them.

 

Thanks Noah figured I'd offer. I really appreciate you conducting this test and sharing your findings in the first place. I'll stick with what I'm using for now and look forward to testing 2.0 next year. GL with the house hunt; I've been trying to buy a house for the past year...Im just too damn picky

LV- I've picked up my gold filters at Advance Auto, AutoZone and even Sears IIRC but I don't recall seeing the blue ones although as I said I wasn't looking for them so they may have been right in front of my eyes without me even noticing.

The torn media on the gold filters is a bit of a concern. I've been using the PL14459 for the past couple years now so ~12 filters and haven't had any issues that I am aware of. I'm curious as to your finding when you have a chance to cut open your gold filter. I've got a few used filters kicking around so I'd be happy to cut them open as well. Just give me some guidance as to what I should be looking for as I'm not educated enough on the topic to draw any conclusions...

 

heel2toe,
I'm going to cut open my P1(gold purolator) with an old can opener, heard the P1 are thiin enough to use a can opener. The wife's car is the pl 14610.

Here's a link to look at. They seem to tear at the seam, top or bottom.

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums...ra#Post3482084

 

I've got an amsoil filter from my last change I need to cut open.

Two track days and ~300 miles on it.