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Seriously? 20 nm is only 14 ft. lbs. which is really only hand tight. I have been doing oil changes professionally for 25 yrs and have never had an oil filter come loose after tightening it by hand. Its a rubber gasket and if you go too tight you can distort the gasket and cause a leak. Definetly agree with making sure the gasket surface is clean and always lube the gasket on the new filter.
Its 14-18LB-FT.
No. Thats not hand tight. Hand tight with a lot of struggle probably translates to like 5 to 10LB-FT.
Imagine trying to get 14 to 18LB-FT with a wrench thats 1.56" long. You'd need to hang a 130-140LB weight on the end of it.
Now imagine having to grip the filter's smooth surface by squeezing your palm hard enough to make enough friction to hold on to it WHILE pushing down on it with 140LB of force WHILE your arms are in an awkward position, WHILE someone is sticking their wet finger in your ear and taunting you by calling you weak.
In every single way...no, you cannot tighten it by hand.
Just use a wrench. The PCX is not a normal filter. If it were, you probably could tighten it by hand.
I was only pointing out the instructions on the filter. Which everyone else seemed to ignore. So yeah be a dick to some guy on the internet for no reason, when your comments should be directed at the people that don't even realize there are instructions on the filter or owner's manual.
I will wade in here and guess he really was not trying to be a dick for the sake of being dick. You pointed out many seem to ignore the instructions and the consequences, although not frequent, can be severe. Lots of people have fallen into a habit pattern over time and nothing bad has happened so they keep doing what they have been doing. I think it was objective that he quantified the amount of force required (by moment arm/wrench) to achieve the filter instructions torque value.
In the highly technical industry I am in we do not look unkindly to any correction validated by math, science, or human factors. I invite it and I appreciate it.
You obviously missed the part where I said, use a tool, whatever, it's 7/8ths of a turn. I've put on enough s2k filters to know 7/8ths of a turn is pretty accurate to the torque spec. And yeah I do it by hand, because my hands are wrapped with rubberized mechanics gloves, which make spinning pretty easy, no need for tools. Futomoto drain valve, a pan, and gloves.
As far as contact, my views aren't skewed or wrong. You spin it on until you feel it touch, there is a difference between it touches vs riding on the oil film on initial contact.
Do what you want. I was only pointing out the instructions on the filter. Which everyone else seemed to ignore. So yeah be a dick to some guy on the internet for no reason, when your comments should be directed at the people that don't even realize there are instructions on the filter or owner's manual.
bro I'm a really good person overall.
Its just a filter anyway. I'm just stating facts, my man. If you think you did it by hand...you probably didn't. Even with gloves on.
An easy way, I've found, is to use a strap wrench in reverse. I can *pretty much* estimate 18LB-FT. I use 7/8 turn as a loose guide. BUT....I wouldn't recommend my method to anyone else.
The tool is $30. Everyone probably has a torque wrench...or...they're $12 at harbor freight. So I don't see any good reason for someone to do it incorrectly.
Even my lawn mower has a torque spec for the oil filter after it contacts the engine: 10-12 NM (88.5 - 106.n lb-in) or 1/2 to 3/4 turn.
-- Chuck
Honda has a torque spec for everything on all vehicles, engines etc. There is nothing we assemble that we do hand tight or any of the sort.
We torque the oil filter to 12Nm on the current models we build.
So best practice should always be what is recommended by the engineers who designed and tested it.
