Oil Leak...how tight should the filter be?
Well, here goes….I get home yesterday after work and find that sometime in the past few weeks (since I lowered it) that I have developed a pretty good oil leak. I have been noticing a “burnt” smell, but quite frankly thought it was my 285/30/20’s rubbing a bit in the rear and creating the smell.
I have oil all on the black cover plate pooling and it actually looks like it was leaking from the filter. I got the water hose out to clean up the mess and to see where it was leaking from and do believe the filter is leaking. I have not had an oil change in a few months, but noticed that the filter could be unscrewed by hand without much effort. I had an extra oil filter in my tool box (thanks Rob from Needswings) and decided to put it on to have a fresh set of o-rings. The old rings looked fine, but I changed them anyway. I tighten the filter the best I could by hand, but I did not have a strap wrench to tighten it down more. I cranked up the car and drove around the block and came back to see a little run of oil coming out of the filter again, so this must be the culprit. My question for you guys is how tight should the filter be? I bought a strap wrench on my way to the office and will “crank it down” when I get home but am not sure how tight. Your comments will be appreciated.