jake_martin16•1mo agoProlific Poster

The guy who tightens oil filters by hand with no lube

I ran into a guy at a shop in Austin last week who swears you should put oil filters on dry and crank them as tight as you can by hand. I had to pull one off a Honda CRV that was seized on there so bad it took a filter wrench and a breaker bar. Why do people still think this is a good idea? A little oil on the gasket and hand tight plus a quarter turn is literally on every filter box. Has anyone else had to fight with one of these gorilla-tight filters?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_wyatt1mo ago

I read somewhere that a lot of those old school guys came from working on farm equipment or big trucks where you actually do need to crank filters down hard... different seals and materials back then I guess. But modern cars with those thin aluminum threads on the housing? That's a disaster waiting to happen. I've seen the aftermath of one of those gorilla tightened ones on a Subaru and it stripped the whole threads right off the oil cooler. A little bit of oil on the gasket is just common sense, it keeps the rubber from tearing and binding up. Hand tight plus a quarter turn has never failed me on any car I've owned.

olivia_webb1mo agoMost Upvoted

literally had a guy bring his truck into the shop last month with a filter that took a breaker bar and a cheater pipe to get off. the old gasket was welded to the block and the new one was already crushed flat. hand tight plus a quarter turn is the golden rule, always lube the gasket first.

sammurray1mo ago

Man I feel personally attacked by this discussion because I'm pretty sure I was that guy on my first oil change at 16. My dad handed me a filter and said "tighten it like you mean it" and I took that way too literally. Ended up having to call a buddy to bring over a filter wrench and a hammer and I still think about that moment when I can't sleep at night. Now I'm the opposite - I probably under-tighten them because I'm scared of repeating that disaster. But seriously, dry gasket and gorilla grip? That's just asking for a weekend of cursing in the driveway with a broken filter housing.