I can’t help but wonder if you had been checking oil level on a regular basis. I feel that if the gasket had not seated properly you would have been leaking oil for 5 months. That much time just about lets the oil change place off the hook.
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OK Joe, see you in court. Perhaps The Same can provide a one page evaluation and explanation with his engineer stamp to use in court against Joe the lube guy.
Just as an aside though, I never do an oil change with just one filter on hand, or just one supply of oil either. I always make sure if something goes wrong that I have a spare. Never had a problem but sure enough if I don’t plan for it, I will.
It looks like the old filter gasket was left on the engine and the new gasket stuck to it on half the circumference.
How long have filters had those “Mickey Mouse” directions re proper installation printed on the side?
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I have seen no indication of a slow leak. I park in the same spot everyday and its clean. My dad just put in a new blacktop in his driveway and I visit them often if he saw oil on his blacktop I would hear about it.
I have realized I am screwed. I contacted them and gave it a try. They have a limited 3,000 mile/ 3 month warranty which if you read pretty much protects them from anything even if it happens in the time period. It was comical talking to the oil & lube franchise guy the things he said were laughable.
Would still like to know if you were checking your oil on a regular basis.
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Exactly. You can loose oil without seeing any visible leaks on a driveway. OP, were you still checking your oil level regularly?
I haven’t anything other than a wild guess what caused it. I’ve always diy’er changed the oil in my vehicles, & nothing like that has ever happened to me. Any of the ideas above are possible. Of those I’d say the one about the filter being defective from the get go seems most likely.
It’s important when replacing the filter to carefully visually inspect using a bright flashlight to make sure there’s no debris (grit, or parts of the old gasket) left stuck to the engine surface where the filter seats, to carefully inspect the new filter for imperfections, like it having two gaskets or no gaskets. I’ve seen examples of both in new filters. And to coat the new filter’s gasket with alight coating of oil prior to the install. Finally, after everything is done, start the engine and crawl back under the car with a flashlight making sure the gasket remains installed correctly, and it isn’t leaking. Bump the throttle a few times to briefly rev the engine and repeat the under-car gasket inspection. I’ve seen new gaskets pop loose of their seat and start leaking doing this.
My wild guess for your case, the shop who installed the filter forgot to coat the gasket with an oil film prior to the install. And that caused the gasket to stick to the engine housing while twisting it on, and the friction pulled it out from where it normally seats in the filter ring. They might have been able to notice this happened if they had carefully done the after-install gasket inspection, but I doubt they did that. Usually shops-- at most – just start the engine and look for any oil dripping onto the ground.
I have personally changed oil on my family fleet of GM and Chrysler cars hundreds of times, literally, using factory filters.
The filter seals are never deformed, damaged, leaking, etcetera. When wiped off they always look like new.
I always check the removed filter for having retained the seal and also the block/adapter when cleaning it.
I never had a seal stick to the engine (pulled from the filter channel), until I got a GM car that uses AC PF-61 (or PF-61e) filters. They scare me because I have had a number of them with the seal being stuck to the engine, not all that tightly, but they just don’t hold in the channel as the PF-47 and PF-51 filters I used regularly and my memory isn’t as keen as it once was. This happens when the seals are lubed, prior to installation and the filters tightened to manufacturer’s specs.
I now remove the seal from the old filter, wipe it off, and hang it on the neck of my 5 quart jug of oil, out of the checking habit routine. To this day, I still run the engine after every change and check for leaks.
My guesses are that the filter was double gasketed, not installed properly somehow, or junk parts.
Every time I hear one of these stories reminds me why I adamantly contort my old body and change my own oil, that and the fact that I never like to pay anybody to do what I can do myself.
CSA
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There’s also the possibility that the filter was installed with a dry gasket and someone with hams for fists deformed it by really cranking it down tight. I’m still leaning towards a double gasket.
The problem is that they’re the ones who apparently have removed it and if it as double gasketed do you think that place is going to admit to it? Not in a million years. There’s a lot of money riding on the cause so it’s much easier and cheaper to say we didn’t do it.
If the lube tech sees oil all over the place and removes the filter to find 2 pooched up gaskets guess where one of them will disappear to…
This “my techs don’t make mistakes” should be taken with a grain of salt. I’ve worked for 5 dealers and one independent shop over the decades and I’ve never seen a mistake free shop; even one that was staffed with nothing but top line mechanics. I’ve made mistakes myself although granted never anything that led to the loss of an engine.
Good hypothesis George.
Mine is that the gasket was malformed or incorrect from the filter’s box, the quickie lube guy installed it without looking at it, and then he torqued it, and torqued it, and torqued it some more until it stopped hemorrhaging, never looking to see why it was doing so. I’d bet the filter’s box had no company name on it at all and was manufactured in some unknown third-world country.
IMHO it was probably a confluence of a bad gasket, bad company policies, and an undertrained, underqualified installer given only minutes to complete the job.
It would take some hands-on analysis to present a credible analysis. I’d want to run tests on the elastomer, check it against its design drawing for both physical parameters and material, evaluate the installation characteristics, and perhaps check the elastomer grain structure for evidence of forced deformation and cold flow. I’d also want to do a cursory enquiry with the poor kid that installed the filter.
Of course one look at other filters out of the quickie-lube’s supply bin combined with a quick private talk with the installer would probably disclose exactly why it happened, making all the technical stuff unnecessary. I’d bet lunch that the filter gaskets didn’t meet the specified durometer requirements… or the material requirements… and probably not even the dimensional requirements. I’d bet dinner that the installer would say (if he felt safe) “yeah, I couldn’t get it to seal, but I only had two minutes to do the job, so I torqued it until it stopped leaking”.
My experience is that analysis of this type of failure doesn’t usually need to get too sophisticated. But it would require access to and honesty by the poor kid that installed it. As well as access to the quickie-lube supply chain.
Good point TSM. Of the oil filter’s I’ve installed that have leaked, it was the ones I tightened too tight. I never had one leak (yet) b/c I didn’t tighten it enough. Such a thing is possible of course, but that’s never happened with any of mine.
I had something looking exactly like this, but leak happened right after oil/filter change, oil was gushing out.
I’m sure it was lubricated properly and it was no double-gasket.
It was “orange” FRAM, I have to confess I was going the cheapest route 10+ years ago…
I did not really understand what caused that, I thought filter was deformed or something like this, so I trashed it and simply pulled another filter from the shelf and it was OK.
I think the OP said a different shop had removed the filter so if it was double gasketed, they would have no reason not to say so. That said, just because a shop has a sign that says 3 months warranty doesn’t mean anything. If they screwed up, they would still be liable, but of course the longer it goes the harder it is to show their fault.
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That square cut gasket was compressed deep into the grove in the filter body until the second seal, the one from the previous filter, popped out of place. That is when the gasket rolled out of position.
Those who have shop experience believe the filter was installed with the old gasket (double gasket), those without shop experience have odd hypothesis of the cause of failure.
Did you expect the manager to open the till and hand you $5,000 ?
Customers claim engine damage after a service too often, quick lube shops know how to brush this off.
This sort of thing may need to be settled in court, unfortunately you have little evidence.
I am confused on what you mean by second seal? Your saying that when they removed the previous filter they left its gasket behind and installed the new filter on top of it? The first thing the mechanic thought was double gasket and according to him that was not the case.
I would say I don’t check as often as I should I last checked it about 40-45 days ago because I knew it was going to need an oil change soon it was just shy of 5K and at the time it was fine didn’t need a top off and looked clean and since that day I have driven it maybe 250 miles. I would guess if that filter was leaking since its install (3+ months ago) I would see some indication that it needed oil. Its a 2001 Toyota Tacoma with 83,000 miles that I bought brand new the day after 9/11 I rarely drive it more than 5K a year.
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Yes, this is what others have mentioned as “double gasket”.
I double gasketed a filter once on my 1997 Ford truck. The old gasket stuck to the mating surface and I didn’t realize that the old gasket had separated from the filter until I started the truck and oil was everywhere. Maybe not all double gasketing jobs result in such an immediate and catastrophic leak but mine did.
I now ALWAYS check the old filter upon removal to make sure the gasket is still attached to the old filter.
I don’t think the lube places take the time to lube the gaskets very often. It seems they are always stuck on to the mating surface and hard to remove when someone else changes my oil. This is exactly why I do this simple but dirty job myself. I have heard too many horror stories. That extra few seconds it would take someone else to do something right is costing these places money.
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For what it’s worth, I once had a car in the dealer shop for a recall (Ironically, for oil leakage.) and they changed the oil. This was before I stopped assuming a dealer would certainly check for leaks as specified by the oil filter manufacturer.
I was less than pleased when I arrived home (20 miles) and noticed an oil drip trail up my driveway. Fortunately, the oil was only slightly below full.
It turned out that a piece of wiring harness “tape” (apparently dangling from a harness) got trapped between the filter and the block and caused the leak.
I’m putting this example out there as another thing that can be botched during a simple oil change and having a trusting car owner become an unintended accomplice.
Had I parked on gravel and not a clean paved driveway, the outcome could have been bad.
The other thing
It appears that oil filter seal in the photo, above, is deformed, permanently, but by what?
Have any of you guys ever seen a permanently deformed oil filter sealing ring? I can’t imagine it.
My GM and Chrysler filters have tough, dense, (Neoprene?) seals that I am sure can stand up to compression, heat, oil, etcetera. Also, I’d bet that I could tighten one up in a vice and providing that didn’t cut the seal, it would spring back into shape when released.
I smell a rat with the physical qualities of the seal in the picture. 
I’d carefully compare that one to a real one from an OEM filter seal.
CSA 
Nevada, I was fixing cars 1/2 century ago, probably before you were born.
Fortunately, I also have the experience of having done countless formal failure analysis during my 20+ years as an engineer. It may have ultimately been a double gasket problem, but that makes the hypothesis of others no less possible. Insults are unnecessary. Take the chip off your shoulder. It serves no purpose.
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40 to 45 days and only because it was due for an oil change. That is just wrong, you should at least check every fill up or every two weeks. First you say the changes was 5 months ago and then you write 3 + months. You should have had some kind of warning before your engine seized . engine lights or oil light or at least some strange noise.