I bought a 2006 Ford F-150 four months ago and noticed that the oil was down a quart, ao instead of adding a quart to the oil that didn’t look very clean I decided to change the oil and filter myself. When I put the filter wrench on the filter it was so tight that I had to use a breaker bar on the filter it was that tight. The kid that changed it last must have used an impact wrench on it. When I finally got it off and installed a new filter I happened to look at the old filter and noticed that the gasket was missing. I must have put the new filter on over the old gasked. My question is: Will it do any harm to leave the old gasket on along with the new one. It doesn’t seem to be leaking.
One good habit when doing oil changes is to check and clean the mating surface before you spin on the new filter. It is always good the examine the old filter before you install the new filter. This is how to find the old part of the gasket that may have stuck to the mating surface.
For the $4-5 cost in a new filter, I would take it off, check the mating surface and replace it. It is entirely possible that the old gasket and new filter would do no harm, but a $4-5 investment to make sure is worth it.
I suspect the previous oil changer did not lightly lube the gasket and obviously used too much muscle power to overtighten the old filter, causing the issues you now have.
For SURE, remove the old gasket!! Double gasketed oil filters are likely to blow out the extra, unsupported rubber sealing ring and quickly pump out all the oil…
When filters are hard to remove, it’s usually because the filter was installed without lubricating the new seal which allows them to fuse to the metal sealing surface…
It will. This is called ‘double gasketing’, and the extra gasket will eventually shift out of position and cause a big oil leak. The gasket that comes with the filter is caged, and not allowed to shift. The old gasket left up there is no longer caged, and is free to shift all over the place.
Go ahead and remove the filter again to get that extra gasket off. The most you will lose is a quart of oil in the filter if you allow it to drain out. But, you should be able to remove the filter with only a little loss if you can keep from tipping the filter. Get that old gasket off, and check the gasket on the filter for damage. If it is OK, reinstall the filter. If not, just replace it. $3 to $5 for a new filter is cheap compared to engine damage.
We used to say “Check the gasket or get your a** kicked” Better get that double out of there