Changed oil today, couldn't get the filter off!

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Originally Posted By: Trav
Guess you don't like screwdrivers, hammers, drill bits and a lots of other single purpose tools eh ?




Twisted logic. Of course, you can take a cup filter wrench, cut some teeth into it and have a hole saw.

Channelocks have a lot of versatility.
 
That's the one..
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Large pair of channel locks is all I've ever used on stuck oil filters. Be sure to scrape off the probably stuck gasket off the block.
 
I don't know what kind of oil filter wrench(es) you have. But your Escort sounds like the oil filter is in the same location as my 1996 2.0L Zetec Contour. I find it helps to jack the car safely at the front jack point on the passenger side and remove the tire. This way you can at least easily access the oil filter and with the suspension drooping it comes out with much less mess. Good luck!

Whimsey
 
The Zetec is sort of the successor to the Ford CVH engine, it came out in 1991 to replace the SOHC 8v CVH, for example a CVH head will fit on a Zetec block and so on so yes the oil filter is in almost the same place.
Yeah i will probably jack it up and remove the passenger's side front wheel to get better access to it.
I have this type of wrench : https://www.thetoolacademy.com/laser-3328-oil-filter-wrench---metal-band-1258-p.asp
 
Originally Posted By: Trav
That's the one..
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oh dang Trav!! I laughed so hard I was crying!! Oh man, that is hilarious!! SOOO true!! thanks for the laugh!!
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EDIT: I know it was a jab at the "harbor" place.. lol
 
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wish you luck, and I have used the screwdriver through the filter, but it was many years ago when I was working my way through college and for an independent "full service station".

if it works, great, if not, you're screwed.

I'd take it back to the people who put it on and ask them not to install so tight. hopefully it's not cross threaded.
 
I've never NOT been able to get the filter off after hammering a screwdriver in it
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You only need the screwdriver for about a quarter, maybe half a turn. Then it will unscrew like normal
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screwdriver through it is not good. When it doesn't work you just hosed yourself. If it doesn't come off with a strap wrench setup, rubber based preferably, you are screwed.
 
I wrap the filter with a couple of rounds of masking tape. It helps my filter wrench get a better grip. I got the idea from the Fram filter grip. Works for me.
 
Originally Posted By: FordCapriDriver
Well it took nearly 2 hours but i managed to get it off, good god.


What did it take for it to finally give up?
 
Originally Posted By: FordCapriDriver
Well it took nearly 2 hours but i managed to get it off, good god.


Told you that filter wrench wasn't doing jack, look at it, its hardly damaged. Most badly stuck filters look they went through WWII and then some.
 
I used the same wrench and tried using a rag in between it and the filter, definetly going to buy a better one for the next change probably this Novemeber or December.
 
When I was 16 may parents gave me a used escort, an 86 wagon, with an unknown history (the price was right). Filter just crumpled under the wrenches we had but wouldn't come off. I ended up hammering the 2' handle and shaft of a set of fireplace pokes into it from above as a last ditch effort. That did it. It came off. I hung that filter, or what was left of it, in my locker for a month as a trophy/wall of shame.
 
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