I have been changing oil in cars for 45 years, and today was a first.
I'm trying to go through this in my mind to figure out how to avoid this happening again.
Changed the oil on the Ranger in my signature. Drained it like I always do, then went to remove the filter that was on it.
It was a Supertech from WM. As an aside, I had about a dozen of these I bought when they were clearing them out for 75 cents each. About the same time, Meijer was clearing out their Purolator Red OF's for 40 cents each . bought all six of those they had on hand. Had one of the Puros left.
However today, my OC was going to be Formula Shell 5W30, with one of the ST filters.
Filter removal installation is a PITA on these as all that can be done on the top end is loosen/tighten. The old filter has to be accessed through the drivers side wheel well, so basically once one gets their hands in there, they are fundamentally working blind.
Got the old filter out. It is impossible to get the filter out without having old oil all over the place, so there is always drippage during the process.
Get out the new ST filter. It has the gasket on it. Grab one of the quarts of FS, open it up, and lube the gasket. I then reach through the wheel well, get it on the spindle, then hand tighten it. I could feel my finger touch the gasket on the new filter as I am putting it through the wheel well liner. At that point, I focused on getting it on the spindle and hand tightening it. Don't know anything about the gasket after it is on the spindle.
Got it on, and snugged it from above. That is always a fun experience (have a blister on the top of my right hand as a remembrance.) Put the oil in the engine, and look under (see minor drip, but the oil is black, and it is from the OF area.
Get in and start truck. Oil gauge goes to normal. See nothing other than minor drip of black oil from the OF area. Shut off truck and go get cleaned up.
Come out later to move the truck back to the driveway (do the OC's that I do myself in front of the shed in my back yard where all my OC tools, etc are located.
Pull out into the alley behind the house, all is fine. Turn onto the side street and drive to the stop sign. At that point, all H lets loose. Check Gauges light goes on, and oil gauge needle starts going up and down. At that point, I am about 30' from my driveway, so I get in the drive and shut it down quickly.
I look at my drive and oil drips are all over it. I open the hood, and smell the aroma of smoking oil. First thing I do is check to see if the filter is tight. It was fine. Since I could see that the oil was pouring from the OF area, I knew that the OC was going to be a do over, so I went down and got my last Puro Red, and a five quart jug of Citgo Syn Blend. Pull off the ST filter, and can find no gasket anywhere. It was not on the filter, it was not stuck on the engine, I could not feel it around the area inside the fender liner, nor was it on the ground in front of the shed. Future generations may find it when Bubba Truck is sent to the scrap yard.
Drained the sump again. There was probably close to three quarts in it, so I doubt that Bubba was done any harm. Put the Puro on and the five quarts of Citgo in it, started it up, and let it run. Could not detect any leaks. I then put all my OC stuff back into the shed for the second time, got out the oil dry, and proceeded to put about 25 pounds of it down in the driveway.
Stuff like this provides no joy to the pursuit of changing ones oil.
