A friend phoned Sunday afternoon - he had his 2016 Dodge Grand Caravan up on ramps, and found he did not have the correct socket to remove the plastic cover on the cartridge-filter housing. I think he'd had all previous changes done at the nearby oil-change franchise.
I took a 6-point 24 mm socket over (after doing a quick online search), and with much effort he cracked the cover loose. This was new to me, but the housing is plastic with a protruding hex nut. The socket did slip once, which makes me think previous oil-changers had perhaps used a slightly larger socket (perhaps a 1") and rounded off the plastic hex a bit.
Then it was time to drain the oil. The drain plug was also on way too tight. It was a real battle to crack it loose.
It all turned out fine, but the the overly tight filter cap and drain plug reinforce my desire to do my own oil changes until I can't any longer. I get how they don't want any leaks, but with the filter housing particularly, there's a big fat O-ring - the housing really doesn't have to be very tight.
I know, I preach to the choir - consider this merely another data point.
I took a 6-point 24 mm socket over (after doing a quick online search), and with much effort he cracked the cover loose. This was new to me, but the housing is plastic with a protruding hex nut. The socket did slip once, which makes me think previous oil-changers had perhaps used a slightly larger socket (perhaps a 1") and rounded off the plastic hex a bit.
Then it was time to drain the oil. The drain plug was also on way too tight. It was a real battle to crack it loose.
It all turned out fine, but the the overly tight filter cap and drain plug reinforce my desire to do my own oil changes until I can't any longer. I get how they don't want any leaks, but with the filter housing particularly, there's a big fat O-ring - the housing really doesn't have to be very tight.
I know, I preach to the choir - consider this merely another data point.