Originally Posted By: opus1
Originally Posted By: ThirdeYe
[censored] that plastic shield!
One of the wingnuts that you're supposed to take off seized into place on the one I maintain. PB Blaster, Pliers and a rubber mallet still wouldn't break it loose. It eventually broke the plastic clip that holds it in place but still won't let me remove the shield from that side. Luckily one of the wingnuts still comes off so I can pull it down enough to get access to the filter.
I remember the first few oil changes on the Malibu... I didn't know that plastic shield came off so I tried cramming the oil filter up between the frame and the engine thinking it was the most backwards setup I'd ever seen... until I realized you can remove that shield.
Made life a lot easier.
Glad my Dad and I weren't the only ones stumped by this.
We did one or two changes that way until my Dad decided to see if taking that shield off would help matters. Night and day. I don't bother taking the wing nuts off, I just kind of slide the back of the shield out from the slots/pins that hold it in and let the front pivot down.
I tried doing the pulldown thing before because a mechanic suggested that to me, but I couldn't get the pins back in properly without really working them back in. I felt like the plastic shield was about to break. I'll have to try it again sometime.