I finally found a parts store that stocked the correct Purolator oil filter for the Escape Hybrids. They had five on the shelf at $6.58 so I planned on buying all they had. I opened all the boxes to make sure the o-rings were all in there. They were but I noticed that on a couple of the filters (which are made in Thailand) the felt ring on one or both ends of the filter was extremely thin - almost like it wasn't there. I put those back and ended up getting just three that looked like the OEM look.

Not sure if that felt ring has any real important purpose and if the fact that it was thin would hurt anything. Any thoughts?

Not sure about the felt ring but, what store did you find that had the filter?

Mike Kinnell
Sonic Blue FEH AWD
Go BLUE!

Advance Auto Parts has them. We don't have any near me but I was out in Springfield (about 100 miles west of here) and stopped in just to check. Sure enough, they had them. Last time I was in an Auto Zone they had the Motorcraft 5W-20 oil - lot cheaper than the stealership.

I am thinking of doing some not-so-scientific experimenting with one of the OEM filters I bought and one of the Purolators just to see what I can find.....worth sacrificing one of each to try to ease my mind.

Will update once I tear into them.

The Purolator regular filters are definitely not as nice as the OEM filter. However Purolator now offers a fitment in their PureOne line which is likely identical to the OEM (I have yet to find one to confirm this) as Purolator is the supplier of filters to Ford.

Instead of an L15505 you want to look for an PL15505.

I can get the L15505 at the local Fred Meyer for about $4.50 ea.

The Advance Auto Parts store I was at had the Pure One filter (PL15505) on the shelf - the felt ring on those was worse than the L15505 version. I am guessing that it was a Q.C. problem or maybe the ones that fail Q.C. for Motorcraft end up with the Purolator name on them. I only bought the ones with the felt ring that looked the same as the OEM.

The L15505 looks just like the OEM filter while the PureOne filter is yellow in color (IIRC).

Still haven't dissected the filters yet - once the ankle is better maybe...

Should probably do some tests on the o-rings as well - maybe some stretch tests or something...

Interesting, the Purolator filters I found had a different end cap design than the Motorcraft filter.

I was going by memory when I bought them so I could be wrong. I will try to remember to go grab one of each (OEM & Purolator) out of the garage when I get home. The weather s*cks here today so I have nothing better to do - I'll do some measuring and comparing.......

(Note to self: get a life)

Okay, here is what I have so far.

I posted a picture of the two filters side by side

http://www.greenhybrid.com/share/image765.html
The OEM filter is on the left. As you can see, the Purolator filter has a different end cap as was mentioned by Steve I think. It doesn't LOOK like a big deal at first but I measured it and it looks like this:

OEM: 2.75" overall height, 2.6" element exposure, 20.4 sq. in surface area
PL: 2.75" height, 2.2" element exposure, 17.3 sq. in. surface area

The surface area is just the area of the exposed element as if it were a flat surface, not the actual area of the paper.

The other thing I noticed is that the OE filter has 65 pleats where the PL has only 62. This leads me to believe that the OE filter has more surface area of the actual filter paper. The pleats on the PL appear to be thicker and heavier than the OE filter.

The felt rings on the PL are a tad thicker but are also softer. The OE filter is made in the UK while the PL is made in Thailand.

The PL filter weighs about 16% more than the OE filter. I am guessing it is due to the additional plastic in the cap.

This was all I could think of doing for non-destructive tests. I may still do some more tests (for flow rates and actual areas of the paper, etc) but too tired tonight. Gotta go put the kid to bed soon anyway.

I am now up in the air as to whether I will use the PL filter in the FEH.

Any thoughts?

Hi Nitramjr:

___I do not have any comments related to the filters themselves but I do have to say very nice investigative work! Gotta like a guy that purchases filters and does a side by side with a micrometer

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes

Bored engineer home alone on a rainy Tuesday night. It was either do that or drink heavily.....