I thought that I may have damaged it while cleaning it, but my buddy installed one in his 2004 mustang GT and had about 2,000 miles on it. I had him pull the filter and he too noted that there were a lot of pinholes when holding it up to the sunlight. I also used STP complete fuel system cleaner with every oil change and used shell gas 95% of the time and the oil would still be black. After switching to an amsoil filter in the stang, the next oil change looked like fresh oil with a slight darker tint to it. BTW, Pennzoil Ultra is an amazing oil. I was a faithful Mobil 1 user.......I will never go back.