Help!!! My Oil Filter Is Super Hot!!

[Justin]

A little while back, I changed out the filter on the car (‘95 Chevy Lumina with 110,000). Ditched PureOne filter, installed regular Purolator Premium Plus filter...PureOne was causing lifter noise on startup. As soon as I grabbed the filter, I realized that it was burning hot! Now granted, I had just driven it around a bit, but I have never felt a filter that darn hot before. Was running Valvoline MaxLife 5w-30 at the time...before that, it was running plain Valvoline 5w-30.

Also, yesterday, I discovered the same thing. I had to use an ACDelco filter in a pinch when I couldn’t find a Purolator, so yesterday night (after getting the Purolator) I changed the filter. Once again, the filter was burning hot!! Now though, I’m running Chevron Delo 400 15w-40.

Another thing I have noticed is that the temperature gauge in the dash fluxuates a good amount when driving around now. It doesn’t get really, really hot (260 on gauge), but since there are no numbers on the dash gauge, I’m guessing it will get up to around fourty degress hotter than the usual 180 or so and fluxuate all day long between the norm 180 up to around 220.

What’s going on here??

 

[digitaldrifter91]

i heard somewhere that if u feel the butt of a filter and its hot, then its in bypass mode. but im not sure. i know oil filter gets hot and stuff but what ur saying is alot more than my car can produce even after drivin it. i was going to go for purolator too...well ill see how u will do. i need to do a search to find that subject.

 

[Justin]

quote:

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Originally posted by digitaldrifter91:
i heard somewhere that if u feel the butt of a filter and its hot, then its in bypass mode. but im not sure. i know oil filter gets hot and stuff but what ur saying is alot more than my car can produce even after drivin it. i was going to go for purolator too...well ill see how u will do. i need to do a search to find that subject.

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It's not just the end of the filter, it's the whole darn thing.

 

[digitaldrifter91]

my fault, i meant that...

 

[Al]

Well that filter has no bypass and if the engine is bypassing the filter would probably be colder. It would be helpful if You could get someone with an OBD II to read what the temperature is. Perhaps you need a new thermostat. Its now abnormal for a filter to be too hot to touch right after driving. Oil sump temperature is probably over 150 F . 130F is about as hot as you can touch.

 

[Drew99GT]

My parents have had several midsize GMs with various V6s. Practcially all of them had the fluctuating temp gauge, to the point that it was driving me absolutally batty! It would go from usual 205 up to 220, then back down etc. We had our Bonneville checked out several times and they always said nothing was wrong

I finally came to the concusion that it's from stop and go driving. You'd come to a light, then accelerate away from it, it'd be at 215-220 then gradually come back down. GMs run hot purposly, coolent fans usually don't activate till 215 for the low speed and like 225-230 for high speed. In your case, it might be the thicker oil which will run higher oil temps.

 

[Justin]

quote:

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Originally posted by Drew99GT:
My parents have had several midsize GMs with various V6s. Practcially all of them had the fluctuating temp gauge, to the point that it was driving me absolutally batty! It would go from usual 205 up to 220, then back down etc. We had our Bonneville checked out several times and they always said nothing was wrong

I finally came to the concusion that it's from stop and go driving. You'd come to a light, then accelerate away from it, it'd be at 215-220 then gradually come back down. GMs run hot purposly, coolent fans usually don't activate till 215 for the low speed and like 225-230 for high speed. In your case, it might be the thicker oil which will run higher oil temps.

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Thanks for the reply Drew.

Thing is, mine is doing in highway conditions as well. I drove about 100 miles doing sixty constantly yesterday, and it was doing it all the way (it's driving me crazy!).

..Gonna go out here in awhile and see how it does in stop-and-go city driving. I'll post the results as well.

Also, the temperatures were flucuating with the old 5w-30 MaxLife as well. I still don't understand the super hot filter though. BTW, I'm running an oversized filter (Purolator L24011). Stock is Purolator L10111 (I believe?). I was running the larger filter before the flucuating started (or the hot filter problem), so I don't think that is to blame.

Justin.

 

[DEWFPO]

Motor oil gets hot. Our Bi turbo Audi's oil temp sits at about 220 degrees most of the time, it will get close to 250 degrees if I get into the turbos. So 200 degrees would be normal for a normally aspirated car (far too hot to touch).

 

[FowVay]

I stuck a thermocouple into the sump of my VW TDI to see what kind of oil temperatures it was running. I did this after a interstate drive of 25 miles and I did it after a 9 mile traffic commute and on both occasions the sump temperature was between 235ºF and 240ºF.

I guess that the oil temps can reach some pretty high temperatures. I don't think it's unusual to have a oil filter that is too hot handle if your engine has been running any length of time.

 

[Justin]

quote:

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Originally posted by FowVay:
I stuck a thermocouple into the sump of my VW TDI to see what kind of oil temperatures it was running. I did this after a interstate drive of 25 miles and I did it after a 9 mile traffic commute and on both occasions the sump temperature was between 235ºF and 240ºF.

I guess that the oil temps can reach some pretty high temperatures. I don't think it's unusual to have a oil filter that is too hot handle if your engine has been running any length of time.

---

Hmmm...I just never remember an oil filter that hot to the touch. Oh well.

Any ideas on what would be causing the coolant temperature to be flucuating?

Thanks,

Justin.

 

[YZF150]

When you pop the hood after driving, does it feel and smell hot? Is it radiating heat at you in an abnormal way?

If the gauge is fluctuating, and if the sensor is good, then hot and hotter water is flowing by it in cycles. Perhaps the thermostat spring has failed and it won't stay open when warm. If it closes off, the engine gets overheated, and then maybe the thermo is opening again.

The oil will be taking some of that heat away from the moving metal parts. It won't cool or fluctuate in temp as rapidly as the water-cooled components, and so maybe you're just feeling a heat density that is abnormal because the cooling system is on the blink.

Just speculating.

 

[Mike_dup1]

Sounds like you have cooling systems problems? With that amount of miles and 8 yrs old, I would expect it.

The high temp is a warning, service your coooooling system ASAP.

 

[Rick]

You never know but It could always be the head gaskets, if that is done for.. Those would be the results that you are getting.
Doesn't that car have the aluminum heads with Iron block?

 

[eldawg4100]

hey dude, 180-220 is perfectly normal!

yes my oil filter gets burning hot also.

in summer i install a "cooler collar" its like an aluminum heatsink wrap around the oil filter, and the thing.. gets HOT! hot enough to blister your finger by touching it for a second!

 

[manualman]

Is that still the original thermostat? Change it.

My car repair motto: Check cheap stuff first!

 

[unDummy]

Burning hot is normal operating temperature!

http://www.gfbf.org/hotwaterfacts/index.shtml

Those are some serious high temperatures for those people with accurate(dash gauges aren't-go aftermarket) gauges. I am glad that I use synthetic.
And, one of my cars has an oil cooler with two thermostats. Anything over 220F is death to that engine.

Deal with that engine coolant temp issue immediately.
Thermostats/coolant change/heat transfer agents..... are cheap. Use a new OEM stat from the dealer. Autoparts store thermostat have smaller openings sometimes, and don't always open with the same "curve" as the OEM one.