Are oil filter cap wrenches useless?

[Plawan]

I can never get one to fit and I have a whole kit

In my experiences they are worse than useless.

 

[The motor guy]

In my experiences they are worse than useless.

Yeah then when they do fit, you have to stick it in a vice and knock it off with a hammer.

 

[wtd]

I mostly use the Lisle grabber cap wrenches or a strap wrench.
View attachment 240559

I have two different sizes of these Lisle ones. They are nice.

 

[repairman54]

My UPF63R filters say tighten 3/4 of a turn on the filter sticker on installation. Seems to corollate to technician ''screwdriver grip" hand tight.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

The band style is the best, never failed me even if the filter is destroyed

Yes but ....

Had a '01 Mazda Protege DX 1.6L . That required a cap wrench - worst filter location on back side back of transverse engine pointing to firewall with all sorts of hoses and plumbing in the way.

Then there was the Forester with an EJ 253 with the filter up above a 'portal' in a wrap around cat and exhaust heatshield.
Cap wrench helpful for that too.

No room to swing a band handle on those cars.

 

[amblerman]

I changed the oil on a neighbor's 2018 Ford Escape this past weekend. For those who don't know, the filter is in a tight fit between engine and radiator. It's surrounded by a lot of hoses and pipes. I have two versions of the 3 arm and 2 arm style adjustable filter wrenches. But because of the tight fit and all the pipes/hoses, it had a tough time getting those on tightly and then getting my ratchet on.

I was getting frustrated and then I decided to check the filter against my collection of never been used cap style .
One I found perfectly fit a motocraft FL910S.
It worked perfectly.
I am sure I picked up all my cap style at a discounter when on clearance. Took me decade to see a ROI of that $2 or whatever I spent.

In this case, the dedicated, specifically sized cap style filter wrench saved the day for me.

 

[hrv]

I just hand tighten mine...and am able to remove them with my hands when I need to change the oil filter...

 

[InvalidUserID]

It seems like whenever I have an overly tight filter (usually on my parent's cars after they take them to a quick-lube place) and I'm having a hard time removing them, the cap wrenchs I have ARE useless. Strained my forearm trying to get one loose last time.

 

[Kurtatron]

I've had good luck with end cap filter wrenches, but it is important to be using the right sized cap wrench. Some of them are awful close in size, and it is easy to find one that "fits", but isn't the right one.

I also have a filter wrench somewhat similar to the one @JeffKeryk uses. It works great, when I need it. But I can usually turn off the oil filter on my Outback, by hand.

Strap type filter wrenches are probably the most effective method to remove a filter - assuming you have enough clearance to swing the handle around the filter. I use this style of strap filter wrench on the big oil, fuel and coolant filters, on the Cummins in my motorhome. Super effective, and significantly reduces the amount of clearance needed around the filter.

It can be a little cumbersome to get the strap wrapped around the filter, and hold the square tube in place while attaching a ratchet, especially with an 8" extension. It is tricky, at least on bottom mounted filters, and gravity is not exactly helping you keep the strap in place..

View attachment 240565

My dad used these kinds and passed it on to me. Their grip is so tight, last filter I removed with the tool, ended up with a thumb sized dent from the belt crushing the can. Took quite a bit of torque to loosen it.