Some people shouldn't be allowed to touch cars

[CobraCleric]

That person being me...

Right before I left for San Diego for a couple months I decided to change my oil. Simplest job, done it a couple dozen times.
I get back from San Diego and can't wait to hop in the car (I was rocking a Chevy Aveo as a rental, the absolute cheapest car i could get).
When I left work on tuesday I notice some liquid under the car, didn't smell like antifreeze, must be oil. But I wasn't in the spot all day and my oil level seemed fine so i drove home and kept an eye on it. Got home and eventually saw another drip and thought shit, I'm leaking something and i don't know what. I called up Billy and he said to go ahead and get her over and he'd check on it. Of course when i start driving over there, my oil pressure drops to 0! I pull over and haver her towed the rest of the way.
Turns out when I changed the oil filter, the o-ring from the last filter stuck on the end and so i had 2 rings (which one wore away) and oil just flooded out. Luckily i wasn't actually completely empty and the engine is fine.
:beer: :beer: To Billy Wise and Chris at Bills Auto Performance for taking a glance even though i KNOW they were extremely booked up yesterday. Even got the engine bay cleaned on the dirty cobra! Now to keep it that way :bash:

No more newbie mistakes for me, i don't want a $30 oil change turning into a new engine...

 

[01Lowboy]

glad to hear everything worked out. could've been a lot worse

 

[phillySVT]

Glad to hear its all right. That o-ring gets stuck sometime.

 

[TDoh]

Thanks for posting this, even if it was a little embarassing for you. I know we'll all check for the detaching O-ring from now on when changing the filter. Good information.

Just curious, what brand of filter was it? Maybe one to stay away from...

 

[F8LBITEva]

the ol double ring. pretty much all the filters have the ring/gasket.

 

[TGS2]

Don't feel bad I did this same thing to my wife's Taurus about 8 months ago. I couldn't believe I had made the rookie mistake, but it happens. My excuse was that I was working on the car during breaks in the Eagles game and drinking lots of beer at the same time. : )

 

[CobraCleric]

Just curious, what brand of filter was it? Maybe one to stay away from...

I believe the old one was a Mobil 1 filter (not 100%, it was a while ago) and i replaced it with a Fram ToughGuard.

They all seem to be similarly priced and I had never really read if anyone prefers a specific filter.

 

[ScottinSSMD]

Yeah this happened in my garage with someone else's car. Night before OC trip, we both changed oil, and when he started her up and backed out the garage, a friggin stream of oil followed him out the door. Same thing. So, at 1:30 in the morning we are riding up to the 24hr Exxon for Mobil 1 synthetic. From then on I have always kept and extra stock of oil, just in case. This person would be Rob who sold his red vert over a year ago.

 

[TDoh]

In 25 years of changing my oil, this has never happened to me. Which got me to thinking...I always smear the O-ring on the new filter with oil before installing it. Do you guys do that???

 

[CHVYETR]

I had the same thing happen to me. Got all done backed the car up and a stream of oil. I always check the old filter now.

 

[CobraCleric]

In 25 years of changing my oil, this has never happened to me. Which got me to thinking...I always smear the O-ring on the new filter with oil before installing it. Do you guys do that???

Sure do! Not sure what causes an old o-ring to stick. Maybe i tightened the old one too much? :shrug:

 

[SVTCruiser]

same thing happened to me..spewed oil all over while i was driving..had to pull over and have it towed back home.

 

[TRBO VNM]

I have seen the o-rings come off more times than stay on. it isn't really them sticking to the engine, although that is part of it, but more of it just popping out of the filter. they really aren't secure on the filter that well. I have seen them come off of new filters. just something to watch out for.

and yes, I always put a little oil on the o-ring before install.

 

[TGS2]

In 25 years of changing my oil, this has never happened to me. Which got me to thinking...I always smear the O-ring on the new filter with oil before installing it. Do you guys do that???

I do the same thing, but when it happened to me I didn't ckeck the old filter to make sure the old o-ring had come off the car.

 

[sunburned]

A guy on another forum posted up about him doing this. He got all the way to the end of his driveway before he realized there was a river of oil following him. Ever since I read that, I check every single time to make sure that o-ring is still on the old filter.

 

[01cobravortech]

That was a close call. Thankfully she's alright.

 

[gcassidy]

Glad it's just a bad story, and not an expensive repair.

Has anyone seen a Cobra run a remote oil filter? I can't even get to mine anymore with the oil temp and pressure sending units and brake ducts in the way. There's got to be a better place to mount a remote housing with a few lines. :shrug:

 

[NOXCUSES]

That is why I dont go to jiffy lube. haha

 

[micksnip]

oil

Greg-
With your "scrape-racing" career just starting, I could see that you're looking for ways to move stuff like the oil filter up outta the way! Let's see....what else hangs low.....starter......oil pan.....schmeckel......woops-better stop there....or maybe stop one example back.

Abother knucklehead war story. Had a 67 Nova SS back in the 70s and did the same thing unknowingly with the oil filter-filled her with oil, lubed the gasket, and screwed her right on over the old gasket. Went with my girlfriend Ruth to see American Grafitti that night. Oil pressure looked good, etc and, for those of you who never saw that movie-WOW-it made life make sense in such a wonderful way-all the conflicts I was in the midst of-go to colledg or not, girlfriend, friends, change and facing it-man, I DO sound like a geezer, but whatever.
Oh, yeah....the end of the oil filter story. Sorry, lost my way there. Anyhoo, Ruthie and I had a few brewskies in the car after the movie, smooched it up a bit, then off we go on a cold night after seeing one of the best flicks ever. This a-hole pulls up next to me and made some derogatory remark intended to raise my ire and cause me to engage in a contest of speed. (OK, OK-the climax is coming). Put the Muncie M21 in 1st with the Hurst, put the pedal to the metal, and blasted off as the light turned. I can't tell you what kind of sound it made, but it was a sort of "blat, blat, blat", and the oil pressure goes away, smoke everywhere all over the 327 and the hot headers(remember car idling, drinking brewskies, kissin' on my chick?). There was a trail of oil all through 1st gear-till I pulled over.
Long story short(LMAO)-saw the damage-oil everywhere. Needed a filter-a filling station had one. I needed to get the old one off and had tools, but no oil filter wrench. Could I have left the car there and called for a friend? This was in the city-near the BUS STATION-hint-the bad part of town. I knew there was no friend home, and I had to do this task that was before me-just like in American Graffiti. Pulled out my big screwdriver and hammer, and poked it through and through, and quarter-turn by turn, it came off. Then, bing, took the old gasket off, spun the new filter on, fired her up, and pulled s.l.o.w.l.y...away.
And, that's my story.

Micksnip

 

[NOXCUSES]

Greg-
With your "scrape-racing" career just starting, I could see that you're looking for ways to move stuff like the oil filter up outta the way! Let's see....what else hangs low.....starter......oil pan.....schmeckel......woops-better stop there....or maybe stop one example back.

Abother knucklehead war story. Had a 67 Nova SS back in the 70s and did the same thing unknowingly with the oil filter-filled her with oil, lubed the gasket, and screwed her right on over the old gasket. Went with my girlfriend Ruth to see American Grafitti that night. Oil pressure looked good, etc and, for those of you who never saw that movie-WOW-it made life make sense in such a wonderful way-all the conflicts I was in the midst of-go to colledg or not, girlfriend, friends, change and facing it-man, I DO sound like a geezer, but whatever.
Oh, yeah....the end of the oil filter story. Sorry, lost my way there. Anyhoo, Ruthie and I had a few brewskies in the car after the movie, smooched it up a bit, then off we go on a cold night after seeing one of the best flicks ever. This a-hole pulls up next to me and made some derogatory remark intended to raise my ire and cause me to engage in a contest of speed. (OK, OK-the climax is coming). Put the Muncie M21 in 1st with the Hurst, put the pedal to the metal, and blasted off as the light turned. I can't tell you what kind of sound it made, but it was a sort of "blat, blat, blat", and the oil pressure goes away, smoke everywhere all over the 327 and the hot headers(remember car idling, drinking brewskies, kissin' on my chick?). There was a trail of oil all through 1st gear-till I pulled over.
Long story short(LMAO)-saw the damage-oil everywhere. Needed a filter-a filling station had one. I needed to get the old one off and had tools, but no oil filter wrench. Could I have left the car there and called for a friend? This was in the city-near the BUS STATION-hint-the bad part of town. I knew there was no friend home, and I had to do this task that was before me-just like in American Graffiti. Pulled out my big screwdriver and hammer, and poked it through and through, and quarter-turn by turn, it came off. Then, bing, took the old gasket off, spun the new filter on, fired her up, and pulled s.l.o.w.l.y...away.
And, that's my story.

Micksnip

Wow nice book. HAHA