I used to swear by cheap coolant filters until one blew apart on I-5

Last Thursday I was rolling down I-5 near Bakersfield hauling a load of produce when my temperature gauge started climbing fast. I pulled over at a rest stop and popped the hood, found coolant spraying everywhere from where the filter housing cracked. Turns out that $12 aftermarket filter I grabbed from a parts store in Stockton two months ago had a weak seam. I swapped it with a NAPA Gold filter I keep as a spare and got back on the road, but it cost me a full hour and a half of downtime. Now I'm thinking I should just bite the bullet and stick with OEM filters even if they cost triple the price. Has anyone else had an economy filter fail on them like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

spencer1991mo ago

That rest stop off I-5 near Bakersfield is a rough place to break down, I've been through that stretch many times. But I have to say, I think you might be overreacting a bit. One bad experience with a cheap filter doesn't mean every aftermarket part is junk. I've run plenty of those low cost filters on my own trucks for years without a single problem. Your NAPA Gold filter is also aftermarket by the way, just a different brand. It could just be that you got a lemon, or maybe that part store in Stockton had a bad batch on the shelf. I'd give another economy brand a shot before dropping triple on OEM parts.

abby_king221mo ago

Used to be totally on your side about this actually. Thought people were crazy for spending so much on OEM filters when the cheap ones looked the same on the shelf. But then I put a budget filter on my old F150 and it started leaking oil everywhere after like two months. The gasket just gave up. Swapped it out for a Motorcraft one and its been fine for two years now. That one bad experience really changed my mind, especially since I was the guy telling everyone it was a waste of money before. Your luck has been better than mine I guess.