kamilclk430

So I wake up today and clean the car up a bit to go to a family b day party. On the way there I decide to stop by the store and buy a few gifts for the kids. Before I pull in the lot I get an oil burning smell and I get a msg (ABC failure visit workshop) I turn my wheel and my power steering gives. I stop in the lot to see oil dripping from under car by the driver side front. I pop the hood and see oil all over the engine bay so before I completely freak out I decide to look for a leak. My belt all pullies are in engine oil, along with with hood liner and pretty much everything in oil. I cant find a leak so I tell my girl to start up the car. What do I see? Oil coming out from oil filter cover where the seal is. I changed oil 3k miles ago so I'm in shock how this could happen. I clean the engine bay on car almost every week. Last time my hood was open was 2 days ago with it being 100% perfect. The car had a recent tune but oil filter was not touched. I loosened up the filter it looked like the seal popped out a bit I put it back on tight and everything is good now. No leak after a 20 min drive. WTH? Anyone have an idea on what could cause thiS? What do you guys think? New belt? What to use for oil clean up? I'm so pissed its not even funny the more help the better guys

Thanks
Kamil

320 dreamer

use a 50/50 mix of simple green and water to break down the oil and clean the engine. dont leave it for to long maybe 5 minutes then rinse. repaet as needed to get everything clean. inspect the belt and if it still feels slick replace it

pearlpower

Curious what brand filter? Also, sure it was tight? Sorry to read.

Forrest Gump 9

Next time you do the oil change don't use the big O-ring on the oil filter.

kamilclk430

I thought I had it tight, I drove the car around for about 3K miles or so since the oil change with no issues at all. I did undo the filter with just my bare hand when I really tried on the lot? would this be not tight enough? Could it be that since I do have a bit more power with the new tune pressure caused the ring to give? I'm not sure how it all works out with this situation, I never heard anyone have this problem before. I'm taking everything apart tomorrow and scrubing it down hard, my engine bay was spotless before.

Quadcammer

um, what?

horrible horrible advice.

kamilclk430

So much to say, yet no advice on what could have gone wrong.

Forrest Gump 9

Would you care to clarify why?

That stupid o-ring is nothing but problem for me. Too tight, it would get squash and leak oil, too loose it'll certainly leak, right on mb spec, guess what, still leak. No o-ring, no leak. Matter of fact, by not running the o-ring I have improve my 1/4 mile by almost .5 a second.

Quadcammer

the most obvious?

the filter cap was loose enough to remove by hand. Thats not gonna cut it.

kamilclk430

But the filter was on for 6 good months already with no prior issues at all. I drove the car around for 6 months, if it was loose it would leak right off the bet would it not?

hyperion667

that sounds like a nightmare........good luck....

and pay no attention to Mr. Scrub..........
from what I've gathered he has a very small fan club.....

Quadcammer

maybe it loosened up due to engine vibration, maybe there was a cut in the o-ring.

torqued to spec, you should not be removing this item by hand.

Quadcammer

I don't need a fan club of schmucks like you, so I don't worry about it.

That said, what the hell is the big deal? a nightmare?

Wash the oil off and go about your business.

kamilclk430

If you take care of a car the way I do you can't really say wash the oil off and go on. Before this happened my engine bay was as clean as the cars exterior, now since the belt sprayed the oil everywhere I will be removing a bunch of stuff and cleaning it all up which is a "NIGHTMARE"

Benz-O-Rama

What a nightmare. I know if I had oil blow all over my engine bay, I'd cry.

No insight on why it happened, but you shouldn't be able to loosen that filter housing by hand. Torque spec is 25Nm

kamilclk430

Thank You, I was thinking about crying when I saw oil everywhere but then I remembered what my Mom always said "Crying is not gonna fix it." So I started digging in to find what the cause was. I'm very upset that my car is dirty but at the same time I'm happy that, that's all that happened. When I got out of the car and saw oil everywhere I had the worst in my head.

komp55

Unless you used a torque wrench to tighten it down to the torque spec shown on the housing cover, you have no way of knowing if it was sufficiently tightened. Sounds like it simply was not tightened enough.

Quadcammer

well, I'm sure I will get beaten up for this comment, but the day I'm even remotely upset by a little dirt or oil on the engine of my car, I will have to thoroughly re-evaluate my priorities.

Shifter

Please do use the big o-ring, in fact, you should change each o-ring every time you change the filter. I have seen numerous times cars comming from Indy's and them not changing the 0-rings causing a leak.

kamilclk430

I did change the O Ring at last OIL CHANGE

karwerk

what brand oil filter kit was it?

Hellzno

the filters i get from dealer have four o rings that i change out.

sounds like filter came loose after time. sucks but could have been worse.

pearlpower

There is no science behind tightening the cap, and certainly no torque wrench is needed.

kamilclk430

I did the oil change right it's not my first time changing oil in this car, all seals always replaced with every oil change. I guess it was just the mistake of it being not tight enough and it took till this past Sunday to finally give. My mistake I believe, I did everything over again and now it should be 100% good. This just made mr feel bad cause I could have prevented this by getting the filter cover tight enough the first time around.

splinter

No ****.
Most here have never had an oil filter work itself loose. Probably just dumb luck.