Stuck oil filter

For what its worth I always struggle with my Focus filter with a strap wrench even though I fit it sympathetically and oil the seal. The last few times I have resorted to spraying the housing and seal with with freezer spray (for plumbing) which seems to encourage the seal to loosen its grip. Maybe I have been lucky - see if it works next year.

I found an oil filter wrench like this jointed wrench worked well, gripping the filter without crushing it (too) much. Providing of course there is room to slip it over the filter.

Brian

Thanks for that idea Sam, I will give that a go next time but rather suspect it might be difficult since there is not much room around the filter to wedge in the stick or metal lever. I wonder what the professionals do when the filters are stuck, probably just brute force at the end of the day.

If I had known there was going to be a problem I would have got one of the special large sockets that fit on to the 14 sided bumpy bit at the end of the filter, but it is too late for that now since that end of the filter is now a bit mangled.

Doug

If really stuck it may be possible to drive through a long cold chisel from the side and use it as a lever.

Wrap a chain (old bike chain) around it, then through a ring spanner, use the ring spanner like you would a strap wrench. chain should bite in slightly to give you more grip.

A stout leather belt and doubled up sandpaper is another way.

That freezer idea sounds interesting Paul, I would never have thought of that. I think I have a can of that lurking somewhere and will give it a try next time. Also chains and ring spanners as mentioned by Charles could provide an answer. Any more ideas out there?

Doug

My only suggestion is to change it now, the filter elements are glued to the central tube and to the filter body, if you have twisted the can you could have torn the element thus reducing its filtering or a total bypass.

Martin P

Filter locations on modern cars is bloody ridiculous !!!

My previous car was a Mk1 MX5 (OK, Not THAT modern) and the filter was best approached from underneath, through the wheel arch....... By someone with two elbows in their arm !

I think it was just before I did the 3rd oil change I cracked and bought a remote filter kit for it. After that it was a breeze to swap the filter as it was bolted to the bulkhead with plenty of hand room around it.

It seems that car manufacturers go out of their way to make cars hard to work on now. It's probably so we all get out of the habit of maintaining them ourselves and return to the main dealer to pay for every little thing that needs doing.

There's even cars out there now that need the front bumper removing to change the s0ddin' headlight bulbs !?!?!?! WTF !!!!! If I was in charge of a car design studio and one of the staff brought a design to me that would require BODY PANELS to be removed to change a damn bulb, Their desk drawers would have been emptied before security had even finished kicking (Physically not metaphorically) them out of the building !

Search "Oil Filter Cup Wrench" - which is just a large "proper" socket, designed to fit over the Hex that is on the end of the filter. Saves a ton of messing around, especially in a restricted space..

Alas, poor Reman wouldn't last long as the boss! Commercial reality is that modern cars are not meant to be easily maintained. The goal is to stay in business by selling competitive products, not making life easy for home mechanics.

• Cars are designed to suit efficient assembly in the factory. No problem on the assembly line fitting stuff like bulbs and oil filters at the right stage. Efficient assembly keeps prices down and most customers value this far more than home maintenance opportunities in the distant future. (Home mechanics are an increasingly rare breed.)
• Cars made using reliable parts intended to last manufacturer's design lifetime, say 15 years or 120000 miles. When these parts start failing it's time for the customer to buy a new car.
• More and more cars now contain 'not for amateurs' technology.
• Increased reliability is bad news for the dealer chains. Therefore it makes sense to reward them when something breaks by encouraging customers to have cars fixed professionally rather than DIY. This can be done by requiring special tools, lifting equipment, manuals, diagnostics kit and other gizmos typically only found in a fully equipped professional garage.

Planned obsolescence makes us all rich because it stimulates the economy. The outlook for anyone making easily fixed equipment that lasts forever is grim: Myford went bust because too few people bought their delightfully maintainable machines new! Far too many potential customers were buying second-hand rather than supporting the Myford company as a wage paying enterprise.

Unfortunately stimulating the economy by making stuff that time-expires is unlikely to be sustainable in the long-run. Buying a new replacement every few years may not be possible in a world where most natural resources have already been consumed. If buying new gets expensive again, we'll see a return to the old-fashioned methods that favour repairmen. Back to re-soling hob-nailed boots, boiling handkerchiefs, sharpening cut-throat razors, vegetable gardens, patching-up bike tyres, wearing replaceable shirt collars and recycling absolutely everything.

Dave

The problem is caused by several factors - eg: Car owners do not do their own maintenance, and there is a sort of conspiracy between makers and dealers to ensure that the dealer gets all the work. Hence the current crop of rental deals with free routine servicing and a guarantee buy-back clause on condition that the dealer-service book is completely up to date.

Sorry - that is about it.

Tim

I suppose repairability for a home car mechanic is as much a matter of philosophy - if your engine i not running well and you plug in a fault reader (£25 or so) and it tells you to replace a coil pack (£90) as happened to me recently is far more expensive than replacing a traditional coil but considerably easier than diagnosing a misfire in an older car.

I don't know about home mechanics, my son, an apprentice-trained mechanic for a main dealership, got sick to death with working on electrics in tiny spaces, and the manufacturing shaving a fraction of a penny off the price of a washer. He's now a tree feller, working out in the open air, perhaps less financially rewarded but far happier.

I managed 350k miles in my '64 Alpine but used 6 engines because they were an (unprintable) useless design, plus body designed to rust.

Continued a further 23k miles in a '94 V6 Probe, on original engine , fabulous car.

Due to 'age' (my) ,had (from '18) to progress to a Mazda 6 'automatic everything', 30k miles and looking good,so far.

Verdict, the 'golden years' needed a lot more time on the car than anything produced in the '90's onwards, time

I do not have anymore.

Sorry, for 23k read 230k miles.

Miss fires can be found by a watering can - wet the exhaust manifold by the head with the engine running - last exhaust port to dry out is the naughty boy.

Simples

Never heard about that one before. Not a bad tip.

And a quick way to crack a cast manifold.

My Daughter and son in law have two cars, a nearly ten year old Focus (Family car) which is contract serviced by Ford and is tip top, my daughter has had it seven years, the second car is a 2001 Corsa B 1.0 ltr engine run around bought from my wifes sister for £100, it came with issues which got sorted. Yesterday SIL and me fitted a new auxilliary belt, with the manual at hand it took 2.5 hrs to change, jack up car, offside wheel off, remove plastic inner wings, remove filter airbox, MAF sensor, support engine on offside with trolley jack, remove off side engine mount, release tension on belt and lock with nail, remove belt, check bearings in idler pulley and reverse the above. SIL is a good lad and looks after his family but his mechanical skill in all departments are less than zero but he listens and watches so reassembly was quicker. Yesterday was also to take his mind off the fact that his younger sister, 38, passed away in a local Hospice from Breast Cancer Friday evening.

Martin P

Edited By Douglas Johnston on 09/07/2020 11:23:32