Ugh, filter came loose.

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Torrid

Torrid

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I got home yesterday to find a decent sized oil puddle where the LS normally parks. Luckily my wife wasn't far away, so I raced over to check out the car. I found the filter to be loose and a decent drip coming from the bottom of it. At this point the car was already a bit under the minimum mark. I'm not sure what caused it. I've always hand tightened filters while holding a clean rag for grip. I've been changing my own oil for 10+ years and that method hasn't failed me until now. Has anyone had this happen to them? It seems it somehow worked its way loose because I changed the oil a month ago and there wasn't a drop on the garage floor until this week.

I tightened the filter back up on the spot and topped it up. At no point was there any unusual noise, but given the dipstick level I must have caught this just in time.
 
Hmmm. If you are certain you tightened it correctly, then I am guessing something is wrong with the filter be it the threads or gasket. A filter shouldnt just work itself loose.

I would go by a $4 Motorcraft filter and just replace it.
 
A common problem is to have the rubber gasket pull out of its groove on the old filter upon removal and stick to the engine. Then you put the new one on and have two stacked gaskets, which will sooner or later blow out.
 
No, I know it isn't double gasketed. I always wipe down the mating surface and check to make sure the gasket isn't left behind. I have seen other people manage to double gasket and it's usually an immediate shower of oil. I may just change out the filter for piece of mind. It just seems like such an odd occurance.
 
Hmm... changing this way for the last 10 years...

Didcha ever think age catches up and your hand can't tighten like it used to?
wink.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Torrid

I tightened the filter back up on the spot and topped it up. At no point was there any unusual noise, but given the dipstick level I must have caught this just in time.


It'd have to lost at least half of the fill to MAYBE cause damage... In a five or six quart sump 1½ quarts low isn't a issue...

My beater F-150 didn't have more than a quart in the pan when I got it, three years later it runs fine...
 
I am thinking either you forgot to put some oil on the gasket before screwing it in, or the filter is dented or warped on the mating surface.

I had one defective filter about 30 years ago and it dumped oil on the ground when the engine was started.

I normally look across the filter base to make sure its not damaged.
 
I would definitely change out the filter, just to be safe. I would much rather pay $6 for a new filter than $6000 for a new engine.
 
The best I can figure is that I didn't get enough of a grip on the filter this time, though I'm no stranger to this platform. First LS, but third car with this exact layout counting my current and previous Jag. The filter is in an easy access spot, but the opening is just barely wide enough for your hand.

I also wonder if this car has a tendency to loosen filters. The previous filter installed by the dealer before I picked it up and drove it 2,000 miles home was easy to remove with a bare hand and barely any effort once I finally changed it around the 4k mark. It was losing oil level slowly but consistently, but I never found any drips in the garage. I thought it might have been burning a little oil.
 
I torqued the filter down to the point that I can't remove it by hand, ran the car and checked for leaks. Chalking it up as a fluke. It took two quarts to get back into the upper level of the operating range. It hasn't left a drop since.

I guess my never fail me hand tight isn't good enough on this car for some reason.
 
I had this same loose issue on removal of a Motorcraft filter that I tightened by hand as hard as I could.

There were no leaks but I was a bit perturbed with how easy it was to remove the filter by hand.

The motorcraft was the only one in my stash and the next filters to go on I used a torque wrench with filter cap to tighten. The first time I went to remove one of those, I could not do so by hand.

If I were to guess on the reason, it is that the awkward filter position just makes it harder to get as much hand torque on the filter as one might think they are getting.
 
That may be it, but I've been using these exact Motorcraft filters on two previous Jags which share the same block/oil filter location and I haven't had an issue until now. I'll just continue wrenching them down a bit harder.
 
I was just under my Civic on the weekend, changing the manual transmission fluid, and I noticed a small drip of oil on the oil filter, from the gasket. I never use a wrench to install a spin-on filter, but I snugged it up a bit with the wrench and I expect it to be OK for the 30% left on the maintenance minder.

I think what happened, is the R18A1 engine has the filter almost vertical, between the oil pan and a shield that protects the filter from rocks. That shield makes it awkward to really wrap a hand around it, so I probably didn't get it quite as tight as I thought when I last changed the filter, and the leak was tiny enough I didn't see it after I started the engine after installing it.
 
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