The Stuck Oil Filter Rope Trick

[Ruger]

So, first oil change on my wife's new Toyota Venza hybrid. The oil filter is tiny and it was stuck tight. The boys at the assembly plant really got me. Apparently they didn't lube the oil filter gasket, and they torqued it down with the aid of a team of oxen. The confines are too tight to get both hands on the filter, and in fact too tight to get a good grip with one hand. As it turned out, it wouldn't have mattered if I could get both hands on it. It's a really small filter, so the only filter wrench I have that would fit is a strap wrench - which did nothing but bend the filter.

So I drove into town in the middle of a snowstorm to buy one of those cap-type wrenches with the facets that engage the facets on the filter. No go. The filter was on so tight that the facet engagement wasn't sufficient. The cap wrench would just turn in a notchy fashion on the filter rather than actually turning the filter. Soooo, YouTube. Check out this video. It worked! I had to roughen the filter with sandpaper, wrap the free end of the rope around a big end wrench so I could pull with both hands, put on a pair of leather gloves, and jack up the car so I could brace one foot against the front suspension, and the other knee against the front tire, but it worked. Remember this one, it might save your bacon one day. It did mine.

(BTW, the old school method of driving a long screwdriver through the filter and using that to turn the thing doesn't work nearly as well as in the old days when oil filter cans were made like old style steel beer cans. Oil filters are made of much thinner metal now. If you resort to the screwdriver method these days you run the risk of tearing the oil filter can rather than turning the filter, and that will greatly complicate your efforts to remove it.)

 

[Nex]

I have used this style in tight spots. It clamps down the the end as you tighten. Never heard of the rope trick. Pretty cool.

 

[Ruger]

Thanks, @Nex . I'm going to be looking for another kind of wrench for that filter. The problem is its size. It's only 2 5/8 inch in diameter. And then there is the access to it. Just like the transmission dipstick on my GEN1 Raptor, access to the filter on the Toyota Venza hybrid was not a high priority in the design phase.

 

[mprice1234]

Old trick I've used many times in the past is a leather belt, wrap filter with the belt and put the end thru the buckle then pull the end back the opposite way.

 

[JohnyPython]

That’s quite the ordeal - glad you got the filter off.

I got a small and large strap wrench or I use my channel lock oil filter wrench.

 

[Ruger]

This one looks like it might work. It's good for filters as small as 2 1/2 inches in diameter, and the filter in question is 2 5/8 inch.
Anybody got one of these?

https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/c/lisle/tools---equipment/mechanics-tools/oil---lube-tools/oil-filter-wrenches/5e7255a388f2/lisle-oil-filter-wrench-3-8-inch-drive/lis0/63600?q=oil+filter+wrenches&pos=4

 

[Ruger]

^^^Advance Auto has that tool for $19.99.
O'reilly has that tool for $12.99 with free next-day shipping to the store. Ordered it!

 

[Ruger]

Here is the Lisle #63600 oil filter removal tool. It is made of heavy 1/8" steel, and seems to be a robust tool. It will remove filters from 2 1/2" diameter to 3 1/8". At full expansion it is just big enough to work on the Mobil 1 M1-210A filter for GEN1 Raptors. This is a filter removal tool. It does not tighten. Lisle makes a replacement spring available - P/N 63630. Shown here is the tool at rest and then with the jaws held open with a hex key to show how it works. I will not have occasion to use this tool for some months, so I can't at this time state how effective it is in use.

 

[Meat2022]

If you're removing the filter could have gotten a long flat screwdriver and stabbed a hole in it at an angle and gotten it loose? Or no room to even try ?

 

[thatJeepguy]

If you're removing the filter could have gotten a long flat screwdriver and stabbed a hole in it at an angle and gotten it loose? Or no room to even try ?

I was gonna say anyone else just stab it with a screwdriver and loosen it that way? I don't know whats wrong w people that they feel the need to over tighten these things?