Oil filter leak after 4000 miles

Maintenance/Repairs
21

I disagree for this reason One shop voiced an opinion about another and they said 90%. Ninety percent is not a certainty; it’s an opinion which may or may not be correct. Maybe it’s a crank seal or oil pressure sending unit. Who knows without hands on.

When someone never raises the hood to check the oil level and continues to operate an engine with the oil light on and making awful noise then that falls upon the driver of the car. How many people post on this forum about having a wiped engine because the hood never came up for fluid inspections? Countless; and the finger is always pointed at the car owner. Unless habits are changed this particular car is likely going to suffer the same fate again in the future.

3 Likes
22

I can’t speak to the judge’s thought process, but the only evidence I’d consider valid is sworn testimony that the mechanic torques every oil filter to the vehicle’s specification using a torque wrench.

As a mechanic, I’d never want to testify that I only hand-tightened oil filters and hope that’s good enough for a judge.

23

I would have my fingers crossed hoping they don’t appeal and show up better prepared next time. What’s the time limit for a small claims judgement appeal in your jurisdiction?

24

The filter should not leak. If the filter is leaking it is loose or defective.

There isn’t a torque specification so a statement like that might hurt the defendant’s case, the instructions read;

  1. Lightly lubricate oil filter gasket with clean engine oil.

  2. Thread filter onto adapter nipple. When gasket makes contact with sealing surface, hand tighten one full turn, do not over tighten.

  3. Add oil, verify crankcase oil level and start engine. Inspect for oil leaks.

1 Like
25

To what instructions are you referring?

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26

For the 3.7 liter engine, which engine is that? Looks like a Honda oil filter.

27

Yeah, the one I posted is for a Honda. Here it is for a 1996 4.0 Cherokee:

torq

I’ll keep looking to see if I can get closer to the OP’s make and model.

28

This guy doesn’t cite his source, but he recommends 18.4 ft/lbs. I can’t help but wonder if he’s reading the metric spec and attaching the imperial units.

29

The 3.2 Liter engine in the Cherokee has a cartridge filter, the filter cap can be torqued, tightening 1 turn after contact won’t work.

The 4.0 L engine uses a different oil filter (05281090) than the OHC engines.

30

Hand tightening on the canister filters is EXACTLY what the shop manual calls for. There is no torque spec.

The oil filter on my Highlander and wife’s Lexus is different. You only replace the filter element. It’s not a compression gasket like other filers. I has an O-Ring gasket. There is a torque spec for this filter.

31

There os a torque spec for the cartridge filter housing on my 2012 Camry also but it is useless. It bottoms before the torque is reached. I tighten it by hand and putting a wrench on it does not move it a bit. The o-ring seems to be holding it quite securely when I take it off and it doesn’t leak.

32

I think this has been beaten to death. Some feel comfortable with hand tightening. I don’t and have never had one come loose and only one 50 years ago did I need to punch a screwdriver in to get it off. The few times someone else has changed my oil, the filter was on tighter than I would have done it. At any rate, at 500 miles or 4000 miles, a filter should not come loose or leak. Evidently the mechanic that looked at it said the filter was loose. The judge agreed, right or wrong, end of story. Not everyone will agree with everything but I have no intention of only hand tightening my filters.

33

…and that right there is the problem. One man’s “hand tight” is subjective and imprecise.

The owner’s manual might not have a specific torque spec for a canister filter, but the manufacturer does, and many shop manuals will list it.

…and a professional mechanic should know what it is and use it if he doesn’t want to pay for a replacement engine in small claims court, because saying “I hand tightened it” in court isn’t going to cut it.

34

And exactly what should the professional mechanic do if the factory service information does NOT have a torque spec for a spin-on oil filter . . . ?!

35

Even if I knew the torque spec in ft-lbs for the screw-on filters all my vehicles, past or present, have used, I don’t know how I’d measure the tightening torque. The only tool I have for tightening oil filters has a short handle and a circular band that grabs hold of the filter as I tighten it. I guess I could rig up some sort of fish-weighing gadget to the handle which would tell me how many pounds I was pulling. But even if I knew that number, how would I calculate the torque in ft-lbs being applied?

36

Most filters are so tightly tucked in place that they need a cap type filter wrench. My car has a plastic housing that takes a 64mm cap wrench. Even though I put it on hand tight I have to use a cap wrench and breaker bar to get it off. Using a torque wrench is easy with a cap wrench but to what point, the housing bottoms easily against the block and there is no budging it further.

37

I’d look for it elsewhere or use the specification from a similar model.

38

I can’t imagine that a filter was installed too loose and showed no indications of leaking until it catastrophically failed 4,000 miles later and trashed the engine. Lord knows I’ve installed a lot of filters in my life using the “hand tighten” instructions that have been the industry standard forever as far as I can recall and there has never been a failure.

I did watch a freshly installed filter blow off of a Jeep as it passed my shop. That filter seemed to be a cheap piece of junk with only 2 to 3 threads holding it to the engine and pressured apparently stripped it off. Maybe it was over tightened when installed just a few blocks away at a national chain tire store. The driver pulled off the road immediately and bought a new filter and 5 quarts of oil which he installed then drove away to discuss the situation with the shop he just left.

I don’t want to adopt cars that I work on. And being financially responsible for the situation discussed here is tantamount to adopting the vehicle.

39

I believe there are manufacturers that simply don’t give a spin-on oil filter torque spec, which means the search could be in vain

That’s where a professional mechanic’s best judgement comes in . . . that’s the way I see it

This is a scenario that I envision . . .

The mechanic wants to put the spin-on oil filter back

He wants to look for an oil filter torque spec, but he has to wait, because another guy is using the shop computer to look up some service information.

After several minutes, the other guy is done, and our guy logs onto the factory information website. He enters the vehicle attributes and conducts his search, only to find the manufacturer didn’t give an oil filter torque spec.

He instead changes the vehicle attributes, so that it shows the same engine, but in an suv, instead of a sedan. Again, no oil filter torque spec.

He tries different models years, all to no avail.

Then he walks into the shop foreman’s office and tells him the dilemma.

The shop foreman says “Come with me”

They both walk to the car, which is still up in the air

The shop foreman says “Give me that oil filter”

The mechanic hands the filter to the shop foreman

The shop foreman spins it on until it’s snug, then gives it an extra tug

The shop foreman then looks the mechanic straight in the eyes and says “You’re incompetent. Anybody else would have been done with this oil change 20 minutes ago”

4 Likes
40

I get that, and in that case, it’s the shop foreman’s hide on the line, not yours.

If, however, I was an independent mechanic who owned my own shop, I’d either look it up or use a standard torque spec that I can justify in small claims court, because I’d have a lot more on the line.