Incidentally, I understand WIX makes the filters for NAPA:
The Gold Premium Retail filter is 1742.
The plain box filter for the trade is a ProSelect 21742.
They look identical except for some markings. There is a substantial price difference. My NAPA man tells me WIX makes both.
I wonder if this is yet another marketing thing to sell for higher price by claiming one to be a premium product, even if in name only.
They look identical, but they are internally different. The filter rep for napa/wix stopped by the shop last week and that was one of the questions I asked him.
He stated that years back, the media was the same between the two. The only difference between the proselect and gold was the anti-drain back valve. On the proselect it was nitrile, where as the gold used silicone. It was an obvious difference that you could see, the proselect's had a black valve, where as the gold's had a pink one. The pleat count for the filters was the same.
Back then, that difference wasn't a big issue in my eyes, so we used proselect filters on nearly everything we serviced. Then, about a year or so ago, they added this little disclaimer on the proselect's that stated they were only good for oil drain intervals of 5000 miles/8000 kilometers.
I assumed by them doing that, something internal changed, and I was right.
He told me that the proselect filter now uses a simple cellulose media, like many other cheaper filters on the market. He said that the gold uses a glass enhanced cellulose media, which is better at capturing and holding finer dirt then regular cellulose, which would make the gold a better filter. They still have the different anti-drain back valves.
He said that the disclaimer doesn't mean the proselect filter will blow up at 5001 miles, but that that filter is more aimed at the frequent oil change crowd. But with the longer and longer oil change intervals being spec'd by the oem's, they're really pushing use of the gold filters now.
At the shop, we still use a lot of proselect filters, simply because I don't want my customers doing extended oil changes, because I'm typically the only person that opens the hood on it. With many of your "factory" oil change intervals getting out to 1 year/10k miles, I've seen customers run their cars flat out of oil. I mean even with a 5k mile OCI, the sump of a typical car will be empty if it burns what is considered a "normal" amount(1 quart per 1000 miles).
We use gold filters on vehicles that are new and under warranty, vehicles whose owners never follow the sticker, or diesel engines that could use the better filtration.
) I am not seeking damages for my engine, some T4 and a MC filter would be nice though.
