Many items requiring lubrication by petroleum products need this lubricant to be highly clean. The oil filter is a device used for this purpose, particularly in automotive and other applications for internal combustion engines.

Early automobiles did not have any way of filtering oil. For this reason, along with the low standards to which lubricating oil was generally refined in the era, very frequent oil changes, on the order of every 500 miles (800km) or 1000 miles (1600 km) were often specified for early vehicles. As automotive technology advanced, the first oil filtration devices were developed, becoming widespread by the late 1920s. Early automotive oil filters were largely of the cartridge type, generally consisting of a pleated paper element surrounded by a metal canister perforated with many holes inside a sheet metal housing.

Cartridge-type oil filters were a considerable advance over the previous practice of the oil going unfiltered through the engine, but were still only partially effective in that much of the oil bypassed the filter, which was located on a separte oil line, entirely, and hence went unfiltered. By the 1950s, the "spin-on" on or "full flow" filter had become widespread. This device attached directly to the side of the engine block by a threaded fittting, and was postition so that all of the engine's oil capacity eventually had to pass through it in the course of normal operation. This type of filter is now used almost exclusively in modern passenger cars and in recent years has gained in use even in heavy-duty uses such as large truck engines.

Major brands of oil filters available in the U.S. included Fram, Wix, AC (a General Motors brand) and Motorcraft (a Ford Motor Company brand).

Auto parts | Engines

Ölfilter