Oil Filters

Oil Filters

How to Change Your Oil Filter

Running a car can be a bit of a headache if you are not too technically-minded. There are all too many cars that have specific individual problems, and these problems can create difficulties that affect the running of the car. In order that everything runs smoothly, there is a lot of importance placed on the engine oil, as this keeps moving parts moving. That oil itself is never much use unless you have a good oil filter in the car’s engine. There is all the more importance placed on the quality of the oil filter in a powerful car, as these cars are considered high-performance vehicles and depend on the moving parts’ performance more than ever. 

Replacing an engine oil filter is, theoretically, not supposed to be too difficult. In theory, the filter can be changed by hand. In practice this is almost never the case, because of the fact that oil – as most of us will be fully aware – tends to be quite slippery. Your hands will probably not be sufficient for this job, however, and there are wrenches available for this specific task. These wrenches will be quire simply a godsend as unscrewing an oil filter by hand will be virtually impossible even with a pair of gloves on. Latex or general work gloves will make the entire process a lot more manageable even if you are using the aforementioned wrenches. 

When you access the oil filter, you may well find that it is screwed on pretty tightly. With the aforementioned oil making for a lack of purchase, you would be well advised to wipe it with a rag before you ever take a wrench to it. After using the wrench to loosen the filter, a few turns should get it to a stage where you can do the rest of the work by hand. As you are doing this, you should ensure that you have a receptacle on hand to catch any oil that drips off the nozzle and the sides of the filter as you take it away. 

At this stage, again, it will be worth using a fresh rag to wipe the nozzle and the sides of the new filter for the purposes of ease of handling. You will be well-advised to smear some oil on the rubber surface of the gasket, as this will smooth the twisting of the filter on to the nozzle. A few drips will do, and if you smear them over the whole rubber surface it will create a firm contact point. 

Once the filter is on the contact point you should turn it firmly by hand, ensuring that your hands or the gloves which you are using are free of oil or oily substances. It will become clear that the filter has “snagged up” when there is contact between the new filter and its holding plate. At this point you should give it an additional turn in order to tighten it up. Do not use a wrench when attaching the new filter, as this will potentially warp or break the filter.

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Why do the large v8s always have huge oil filters while some have small ones?

I have seen some big engines that small oil filters and some with really big oil filters doesnt make sense why they dont standerdize.

I hope your plan of standardizing oil filters for particular engines stays inside your house!

For one particular engine car manufacturers usually pick a particular oil filter size for all applications. Big motors usually have more oil pan capacity than small engines. It would seem reasonable that the pan that holds the most oil would have the largest oil filter.

Where clearance is not an issue it's always better to stick the largest cross-referenced oil filter for an application. I can hear you thinking why! The larger the filter means less oil pressure obstruction and greater filtering capacity.

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