oil change head scratcher

Too loose, too tight, not sure which happens more. That reminds me that my torque wrenches are my friends....

(Had a rental Chrysler Pacifica with around 9k miles. Drove home and heard horrible scraping from one of the wheels as I literally pulled up to the driveway. Pulled the wheel off and found one of the caliper bolts loosened so much the brake pad was dragging on the rotor)...

REVVL V+ 5G ?

 

Wow, thanks for sharing... Good thing you pulled over right away...

 

Was it spin-on type or element type? OEM or aftermarket?

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Pretty sure all Prius C are spin on oil filter type...

 

Spec'd install torque is 3/4 of a turn (past first contact) or 13 foot/pounds; did you followed that?

That said, it is weird: wouldn't you have a major oil leak long before it "fell off in my hands"? I mean even if it was just a turn or two loose, it'd be leaking.

 

a spin on fallin off in your hand is rare for sure. spin on right? I'd think that there's not much to do in the way of diagnostic either. Kinda like a tire low on air of flat and after pumpin it back up it's good to go for months or years before it happens again, if it happens again.
I hope at worst it was only a nasty inconvenience and the cleanup wasn't real bad. And no loss of hair from scratching

edit::
Salamander_King said: ↑
Was it spin-on type or element type? OEM or aftermarket?

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
I'm not seeing Sal's post yet - weird - but it Priuschat !! and I'm gettin used to stuff like that here.

edit 2::: now I see Sal and P campers posts - wash rinse repeat - it's priuschat again.

edit 3 - Mendel Liske found this priuschat anomaly 42 minutes ago -now it's 5:50 pm
Hartle-Hawking State | Page 2 | PriusChat

 

Any chance you got an enemy who's tampering with your vehicle? Everytime I unscrew a filter without my oil filter tool but just my hand in a glove about two or three un-turns before it's off it leaks all over the glove and I lose my grip and have a hard time getting it the rest of the way off. Hard to imagine that could come loose without someone intentionally tampering with it?

 

I don't know how long the neck that the filter screws onto is in the C. from what I've seen with the spin ons I change is that once the threads are lined up it takes 25 to 50 full turns before the filter gasket meets metal.

That would give quite a long time to unscrew itself if it was just loosened up enough to start moving.
I was gonna ask if you noticed any undercover pins missing or such. But I know I hardly ever check that stuff either when I'm going under the car, unless I'm already suspicious.

 

Made any enemies lately?

 

Check for a second gasket. It could be that the original gasket was left on the oil filter adapter which caused the assembly to loosen from vibration and fall off with 3k+ miles driven.

That's why it's always prudent to check for an old gasket stuck to the oil filter adapter.

Stripped drain plugs and overfilling is another reason that I do my own oil changes.

 

Here's an interesting thought. I don't know the specifics of the C, but the cars I know of, the oil pump pushes oil into the outer ring of the oil filter face. Oil goes through the filter element and exits through the center port to flow into the engine distribution paths. I seem to remember most cars have the engine block oil port at an angle going to the filter face. What are the chances this "angled port" flowing oil from the pump to the filter had enough force to make a "semi-loose" filter spin off? May have been lightly torqued and working it's way loose for a while until it hit the breakaway point and then just spun? Just like if I took a stationary fan and sprayed it at an angle with a hose. That fan blade would spin, with the rotation speed determined by the force and angle of the water hitting it.

 

Thanks for the update. It is really strange how it happened, but now I have to remember that under torquing the filter can happen. I have been reading so many saying over-torqued filter is more of the problem.

Good to know this. If I keep my PP after my 2 free Toyota Care oil changes, I plan to install Fumoto on it. I already have one installed on our Pathfinder, and it has been working wonderfully. I also plan to re-tap the stripped oil pan drain hole and install a larger bolt size Fumoto on my son's Honda, when the last few threads left in the oil pan give up.

 

Everyone claims that spin on oil filters need to only be hand tightened. I never accepted that. I use the method that adds a half to three-quarter turn after contact resistance is felt.

I've used the Fumoto and the Fram Sure Drain before. Now I just use an aluminum magnetic oil plug, a Viton or HNBR o-ring and tighten it to only about 10 ft lbs. The aluminum threads have half the strength as steel and will give to metal fatigue before the steel.

The British found that out with the De Havilland Comet in the 1950's. While steel would last almost forever if never stressed to its yield limit, aluminum degrades on the basis of the number of stress loading/unloading cycles many times below its yield limit. That's why over time, aluminum oil pan threads always fail over time with a steel oil plug. An aluminum oil plug would lengthen the time before failure.

 

I have not read a case of Fumoto valve failure anywhere yet. But my guess is that if that is to happen, then it is most likely something on the road hits the protruding valve such that it is physically destroyed. In such a case, I wonder if the thread of the oil pan would stay intact?

Talking about drain plugs, for my recent oil change on my son's Honda, I had a line-up of the assortment of plugs to choose from. I ended up picking the longest thread plug on the top of the photo below with a Viton O-ring recommended by @Georgina Rudkus. The third one from the top is the OEM plug with aluminum oil pan thread pieces still remaining on the bolt.

 

Wow! I would have tapped it out to M16x1.5 a long time, ago. That's the standard size used by Subarus.

I'd get this one;

UTSAUTO Magnetic Oil Drain Plug M16x1.5 Magnetic Sump Drain Nut Aluminum Engine Magnetic Oil Drain Plug for Most Cars with M16x1.5 Threaded