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Showerthought: I used to think a good cleaning was enough for an oil change
For years, I'd just wipe the filter housing and slap the new filter on. It was quick and seemed fine. Then, about six months ago, I had a 6.7 Powerstroke come back with a low oil pressure warning a week after a service. The problem was a tiny piece of old filter gasket stuck in the housing groove, something a rag never gets. Now, I always run my finger around the whole groove to feel for any leftover bits, and I use a small pick to clear the channel. It adds maybe thirty seconds to the job, but it stops a comeback. That one mess up cost me an hour of free labor to fix. Has anyone else found a simple step they started doing that saved a lot of trouble later?
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vera_lewis21d ago
Ever have a customer complain about a new oil filter leaking? I kept getting slow drips from the spin-on filters on a few older trucks. Turns out I wasn't checking the old filter's base plate for little dings. A tiny dent from the filter wrench would keep the new seal from sitting flat. Now I give that flat surface a quick look and feel before anything goes on. It stopped all those mystery leaks cold.
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knight.dylan1d ago
Remember that guy who kept swearing up and down he got a bad batch of filters? He was losing a quart every thousand miles, just a slow weep. We pulled the filter and ran a finger over the base. Felt smooth, but under a shop light you could see the tiniest ripple from an old wrench slip. He'd been swapping filters for months, never once looking at the actual mounting surface. A quick hit with some sandpaper fixed it right up.
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