OK, I just eyeballed the info that Mobil has made available on:
http://www.mobil.com/consumer/mobil1/mobil1/oilfilterpds.html
It looks fairly impressive, but the "made for synthetic oil" bit proves to be
nothing more than marketing hyperbole. There is absolutely no reason you
couldn't run the Mobil 1 filters with mineral oil, or so-called "conventional"
filters with synthetic oils like Mobil 1.
The statistical information is good, but I always tend to be a little bit
skeptical about stuff that is offered by the manufacturer. After all, they
have a vested interest in your buying their product, so they aren't going to
stick any of the potentially negative test information on their web site.
There appear to be 2 physical distinguishing characteristics for the Mobil
1 filters:
1. They use "synthetic fibers in the filter media." So they've integrated
some sort of polymer in the media, and aren't using some that are exclusively
wood fiber (i.e. paper).
2. They use some sort of new "internally lubricated" material [Acrylonitrile
Butadiene] in the filter gasket to make removal easier.
The test specs they offer in support of their claims are generated using the
SAE J806 standard for particulate filtering efficiency and cyclic pressure
fatigue. I don't have access to the SAE specs to figure out what the tests
actually measure, but all of the data are generated comparing the M1-301 against
some representative average for "conventional filters." Trouble is that they
don't tell us whether they're using NAPA Gold and WIX "conventional filters" or
the 5-for-two-bucks cheapos on the grocery store shelves.
The impression I'm left with is that the Mobil 1 filter is a very high
quality oil filter that has a polymer medium, and is designed to spin off
easily. However, is it really worth US$10+ bucks? I doubt it, and will
continue to use high quality so-called "conventional" filters like NAPA
and WIX. Those will only set you back $5.
Ron
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