Oil filters have capacity and capability and what you want to look at is the dirt-holding capacity of the filter.

Filters have a dirty job. They screen out and collect the crap so your oil can do its job. Oil lubricates, cools and removes dirt from a lubricating system.

Oil filters have capacity and capability and what you want to look at is the dirt-holding capacity of the filter. You want filters to do their micron best at scrubbing out the microscopic particles and debris, which are the most dangerous.

Look on the filter spec sheet for the ISO 16889 result, which tells how much dirt and debris the filter actually holds. The purpose of the ISO 16889 multi-pass test standard is to have a lab-based procedure that provides reproducible test data that can be used to evaluate the dirt-holding capacity and the particulate removal efficiency, or beta ratio, of a machinery lubricant. The test measures the particulate removal efficiency as it relates to the entrance of dirt particles creating increased differential pressure over the filter's life or beta stability.

The micron rating of a filter tells you how small a particle the filter can stop from flowing – the lower the micron rating the smaller the particle. A human hair is 15-17 microns in diameter. But keep in mind that a micron rating alone is not enough for selecting the best filters.

The microglass or fiberglass filters tend to hold more dirt than a comparable cellulous filter because of the nature of its porosity – more pores are better. But

here's the catch, yeah you might have higher capacity dirt holding but once they plug up, there is an increase of differential pressure which can result in a bypass situation where the oil is not being filtered at all. Once a bypass filter is full the lubricant circulates through the system unfiltered.

So, yep get the 5 micron filter that has a beta 200 rating, but make sure it can hold a lot of dirt so you don't have to change it out frequently. What it boils down to is that

ISO 16889 multi-pass test result found on the filter's spec sheet is a good to look at and better to understand.

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