i felt like a creative title was in order after my frustrating night.

i'll give you the important info up front and leave the details for last. check your oil filter! make sure it's tight. i sprung an oil leak tonight, and scratched my head since it was straight out of the blue. my first thought was my greddy oil filter adapter was acting up and i hadn't tightened one of the plugs up well enough. which i found odd since i installed it without any problems about 2 weeks ago.

checked it out, tightened it all, started the car. still leaking. shut it off. scratched my head again and headed to the part store since i didn't have the right socket to tighten a plug well (i was working with english and needed the metric equivalent). in any case, get back and lo and behold! it wasn't the adapter. i forgot to check the obvious. the filter had come loose. in fact, REALLY loose. it would have really sucked to lose that while driving so i thought it wise to share with all of you that next time you check your oil level, check that filter as well and make sure it's snug.

that was a catastrophe waiting to happen.

 

Good thing you caught it. What kind of filter?

 

Glad you caught it!

Not the K&N by chance?

 

This is the second time I have heard of this happening. I just changed my oil filter for the first time a couple of days ago. Without a filter wrench, It took me three trys to get it off. The filter was clean and so were my hands, so I did not have a problem with my hand slipping on the filter. This thing was on there TIGHT!! This was the filter that was installed at the factory.

Remembering the first time I had heard of someones filter loosening up and puking oil everywhere, I tightened mine considerably tighter than I have on my previous cars.

If I have a hard time removing the filter next time, I will simply use a filter wrench.

Thanks for the info wortham, my filter is NOT going anywhere until I take it off.

 

I had hell getting the stock one off. Ended up drilling a hole in it and using a screwdriver stuc through it to lever it off.

I replaced with a K&N which has a 1 inch nut on the end of it so is very easy to turn with a ring wrench. It also has a hole through the nut for safety wire which is a nice addition.

 

The same thing happened to me a couple months back. Good thing I caught it in time. I saw the oil leak from the garage floor right when I pulled out. Didn't loose much oil though, bout 1/8 of a quart, thank goodness. I have a greddy block adapter as well for the oil pressure and temp sensors. I would have caught it with the oil pressure if oil started to run low but good thing it did not have to go that far. I think the vibrations from the high rpm motor easily loosens up the oil filter. I make sure that the oil filter is tighter than usual when I do oil changes. My friend who works on vipers has the same loosening problem. Check your filter once in a while. Or an oil pressure gauge would help you spot low oil before any damage can occur. The factory oil light will work too, but it needs to be super low in oil before you'll find out.

 

actually, it is. why do you ask?

i use the adapter to monitor oil pressure, but it wasn't giving me any low readings. i've always heard it's not good to torque down the filter any tighter than hand tight. anyone disagree with that?

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by wortham

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by johninator

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by wortham