A pox on mechanics who overtighten oil filters!

[490808]

I'm off in the car to the UK tomorrow. Remembered car is due an oil change. Could have waited till I came back but had an afternoon free so decided to do it.

Quick drive to the motor factors to get an air and oil filter and to warm the oil up. As soon as back home oil pan under the car and out with the slightly tight oil plug. Change air filter to give the oil time to drain and then the oil filter.

Working under the car oil filter is in an awkward spot if its not high up on ramps (when access is easy). I've all the tools but the standard Cup type Oil Filter Socket with a bit of leverage wouldn't touch it. All it did was slip and round the indented part of the oil filter up. In the end I put my "Problem Solving" strap wrench around it and with a normal 1/2 inch socket ratchet it still would not move. Eventually after jacking the car up really high I could get a 2 ft extension tube on the end of the ratchet handle and millimeter by painful millimeter the oil filter rotated.

Over the years I must have changed nearly a hundred oil filters (including agri filters) and never has one dropped off, leaked or ever been difficult to remove. Yet every time I've changed an oil filter on a garage serviced car its been overtightened.

So just to remind anyone who thinks they are a mechanic its HAND TIGHT + MAX 3/4 TURN!

[kadman]

Sounds like an oil filter thats been on the car years, and well overdue its service, either that or cheap old nasty oil filters with plastic seals instead of rubber.

Sounds like old CR's camper

[490808]

If its been on there years then the main dealer in Carlow that did the last service and put the sticker on the windscreen didn't change it.

[CelticRambler]

I'll have you know that my oil filters come off with no bother ... since I learnt early on never to trust a garage to know how to fit things that need to be undone (oil filters, sump bungs and wheel nuts in particular).

Strange as it may seem, I actually love changing the oil/filter on the camper - so easy to get to (compared to the Mégane, which needs half the front end dismantled for access to just about anything) - and the engine purrs so beautifully immediately afterwards!

[kadman]

If its been on there years then the main dealer in Carlow that did the last service and put the sticker on the windscreen didn't change it.

No oil change for years, will definitey seize em up. And its impossible to apply good force comfortably from lying on the floor below the vehicle.
I realised many years ago that because of all the family cars and classics I work on, it was essential to have a lift. And an accident on a shoulder necessitating surgery was the penultimate straw. The final straw was when the good shoulder got damaged too. Result new full height scissor lift.

Now even with a gammy shoulder I could have whipped out that filter in jig time.

[kadman]

And efinitely dont be tempted to use the old" big screwdriver through the filter trick",
too risky for introducing metal into your engine.

[490808]

That just guarantees the new filter will be the wrong size.

[kadman]

You wouldn't swear as much if you had one of these lifts.

And then you could leave your car for years and years with no oil change.

[SmartinMartin]

Having never used scissor lifts before, I'm just not sure I'd get under them Kadman. Is there a locking mechanism on them? That'd make a big difference to me.

[kadman]

Having never used scissor lifts before, I'm just not sure I'd get under them Kadman. Is there a locking mechanism on them? That'd make a big difference to me.

Having had a medium rise scissor lift before with mechanical locking, locking on this one was my first question.
The whole system lines are fitted with parachute valves, whereby if you cut or disconnect one line, then all the valves shut and fluid cannot flow, so the lift cannot come down, the engineer informed me of this the day I went to look at one.
And I asked him where was the safety locking on it. He laughed and pointed to the second ram on each lift.

So the locking mechanism is the second ram circuit.

It has a double set of rams, large on is the main, and the slightly smaller is the safety.
It lifts to 7' high and i leave it up most times for access around it.

Its a brilliant bit of kit.