Marinucci: Avoiding cartridge oil filter fiascoes

Taking practical precautions prevents problems when servicing common cartridge-style oil filters.

My last column covered cautious procedures for all oil and filter changes; this time I will focus on cartridge filter jobs.

Seemingly minor mistakes may become major headaches because service personnel did not take the task seriously. Potential consequences include struggling to access the filter or causing comebacks due to oil leaks.

Ultimately, oil leaks could lead to engine damage.

Experience dictates that trouble-free service requires the proper tools, high-quality parts and adequate time to do the job. At some automotive service facilities, bosses seem woefully unaware of these requirements.

Consumers expect neat and tidy results from all jobs – including the lowly oil change. Savvy service personnel always meet expectations because an oil change may be their last opportunity to impress and retain a customer.

Note that perceived advantages such as low price or quick turn-around may disappear if a comeback occurs.

Let's begin by recognizing the reason for cartridge oil filters and then review service tips borne of experience.

Contrary to what some service personnel have said, cartridge-style oil filters are nothing new. When I began working in service stations in the late 1960s, cartridge filters were commonplace.

Back then, we welcomed the spin-on, canister-style filters that superseded cartridge designs: Replacing a spin-on filter was faster and neater than servicing a cartridge type.

Cartridge filters gradually reappeared within the last 20 years or so because they are environmentally friendly. Remember that when you service a cartridge oil filter, you only replace the pleated paper element inside it and reuse its metal housing.

But when you replace a spin-on oil filter, you discard the entire part — including its sheet metal housing.

By reducing waste, then, the formerly outdated cartridge design became viable again.

Photo 1 shows an example of a common cartridge filter element as well as a threaded cap or cover that secures it to the engine.

Photo 2 shows another filter element and its cast-aluminum filter housing that bolts onto the engine.

Many vehicle manufacturers mount protective panels beneath the engine to protect it and other components from road splash and debris. Sometimes a splash panel completely obstructs the oil filter.

Plastic fasteners called push pins may secure the panel to the vehicle. (When you push this fastener into a hole, its collapsible legs spread out, locking it in place.)

Techs may not know if push pins are reusable until they remove and inspect them. To me, replacing fatigued or broken push pins is a required, routine part of a thorough oil change, so charge accordingly for the job.

Some fastener vendors offer extensive selections of new push pins. I believe that push-pin assortments belong in every parts or service department.

In previous columns, I have discussed specialized pliers that techs use to extract these funny fasteners quickly — hopefully without breaking them. A variety of tool manufacturers and vendors offer push-pin pliers.

Techs may encounter splash shields secured by standard bolts. Watch out because road salt can take a toll on both the bolt heads and threads. For instance, techs may need extra time to grip severely corroded bolt heads with an appropriate tool.

What's more, it may take patience, a rust penetrant and perhaps some heat in order to remove a weathered bolt intact.

Some techs told me that they have drilled out seized splash panel bolts and successfully replaced them with push pins. The key takeaway here is that securely reinstalling an engine splash panel may consume more time than expected.

Photo 3 shows splash shield bolts I removed from a car in the snow-and-salt belt. Although these are reusable as is, I invested several minutes in cleaning the threads and daubing them with anti-seize paste.

These quick and easy steps minimize the risk of future problems and wasted time. Don't forget — one of your techs may be the one changing oil on this vehicle next time.

Some engines such as Mazda's 2.3 liter power plant may require extra caution because it has two different drain plugs. The engine's oil pan has a traditional, steel drain plug threaded into it.

But the oil filter housing has an aluminum drain plug; removing it eases the service by letting oil drain out of the filter housing.

A 6-millimeter hex opening in the aluminum plug, shown in Photo 5, allows a tech to remove the plug with a common Allen wrench. The key to success is getting a firm grip inside the 6-millimeter hex.

For one thing, I urge techs to use a "fresh" Allen wrench instead of a worn one. A worn Allen wrench tip may complicate a simple task by slipping inside the hex opening. Worse yet, it may distort or damage the opening.

For another, a careless tech may have overtightened the drain plug during a previous oil change. Worse yet, some techs damage this drain plug because they failed to seat the Allen wrench fully inside the hex opening.

This rookie error may ruin the aluminum drain plug by severely rounding out the crisp shape of the hex opening. In years gone by, I had to buy the entire filter housing because a new drain plug was not sold separately.

Sometimes techs cope with a partially rounded drain plug by pushing a fresh 6-millimeter Allen wrench as firmly as possible into the hex opening. Then patiently maintain that pressure on the wrench while turning it.

Suppose your tire dealership expands its service menu to include oil changes. If that is the case, servicing common cartridge oil filters requires a proper set of specialized tools. A variety of tool makers and vendors offer comprehensive sets of these items.

Typically, a large threaded cap such as the one shown in Photo 1 holds the oil filter element in place. Removing and reinstalling this cap requires enormous sockets like the one shown in Photo 4.

Some bosses use pegboard to fabricate a centrally located tool display for these filter service sockets. Service managers have told me that the tool board approach helps them see that all pieces are present and accounted for at day's end.

Leaking o-rings

Usually, a cartridge filter kit contains a filter element as well as the necessary o-rings for the job. Incredibly, some characters reuse the existing o-rings and hoard the new ones

Always get an accurate vehicle history if an unfamiliar car arrives with a leaking cartridge filter on it — the installer may be the culprit.

Installing poor-quality parts is flirting with disaster. Repeatedly, sources have described cases where simply installing top-quality o-rings cured oil leaks — astounding the person who just replaced the cartridge filter on the vehicle.

Some import-vehicle specialists told me that inadequate maintenance gave some motorists more headaches than they bargained for. These examples involved a popular V6 engine used in Hyundai and Kia vehicles.

Photo 2 shows the cartridge filter and filter housing used on these V6s; Photo 6 is the cap assembly that threads into the filter housing.

An o-ring on the small end of this component should seal it to the filter housing. If this o-ring leaks, the engine cannot build any oil pressure.

Sources explained that when they removed the cartridge filter cap from badly neglected Korean V6s, the tiny o-ring on the tip of the cap assembly disintegrated. Then fragments of this broken o-ring prevented the new one from sealing properly inside the filter housing.

Consequently, the engine had no oil pressure after they replaced the cartridge filter. Fortunately, their post-mortem revealed the chunks of failed o-ring. Removing this debris and replacing the small o-ring solved the problem.

Predictably, checking for a broken o-ring and removing any rubber debris became standard procedure during oil changes on these V6 engines.

The techs also urged readers to watch out for broken oil filter elements on neglected Hyundai and Kia V6s. Here, the old filter element actually disintegrates when a tech unthreads the cap assembly from the filter housing.

If this occurs, thoroughly clean any filter element debris out of the filter housing.

As the old adage tells us, forewarned is fore-armed.

Ultimately, quality parts, sharp eyes and patience should make successful oil changes effortless on cartridge filter applications.