Oil Filter Wrench Availability?

[Brett Dikeman]

At 5:56 PM -0700 4/25/02, Doug Johnson wrote:

>Many auto parts stores have cap-type wrenches for use with ratchet handles,
>that will fit filters manufactured by Fram.
>Has anyone seen a similar wrench for removal of Mann and Mahle filters?
>Thanks.

IMHO, unless you've got one tough to reach filter(and there certainly
are some doozies out there) oil wrench filters are unnecessary, if
the filter was properly installed by The Last Guy...guess that's a
lot of "ifs" though :-)

They especially should never be used to install a filter.  Pretty
much any mechanic will smack you upside the head if you admit to
doing so(ask me how I know, go ahead :-)  As the guys on Car Talk*
would say, "wassamatta with youz?"

Prefill the oil filter with oil, coat the seal with oil, install,
tighten firmly by hand, and no more; my general rule of thumb is that
I tighten it as much as I can gripping it with a cloth.  They spin
off with about the same effort 5,000 miles later...and I've never had
one leak.

   Only filter I've had trouble with was on a friend's Acura Legend,
where the dealership monkeys tightened the filter so severely I had
to take a chain wrench to it to get it off the car(the spring-type
oil wrench we had snapped.)  There wasn't a drop of oil on the seal,
either.

   The whole exercise was "look at how easy it is to do your own oil
change", and it -totally- backfired.  The look on his face when the
chain wrench came out was one of mild shock :-)

anyway, that's part of my $2 for the night...

Brett
*a hilarious show, BTW...the most popular on NPR, at the moment.  The
credits are my favorite part.  "Emergency services by Peekaboo, of
the Peekaboo ICU"...
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