Rant thread.....
Does anyone else hate the location of the oil filter on their vehicle?
I do on my EX -- particularly when I am on my back, having to reach way up, making it hard to get two hands on it to grip it. The wife's Altima is in a much better location and saves me a lot of time when doing OC's.
Filter Location
- Thread starter lugNutz
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Yep... the location in my Acura is very awkward and hard to see when screwing the new filter back on. It's behind the engine, above the axle. In the Firebird, it's easily visible and not quite as bad, though you still need to crawl under the vehicle to get to it as I'm not quite tall enough nor are my arms long enough to get enough force to loosen it after just barely being able to grasp it. I prefer the ones you can get to without having to crawl under the vehicle, like the 1999 Kia Sephia or the 1999 Pontiac Grand Am SE twin cam 4-cylinder.
Gf's 2002 ford focus 2.0...had to actually search for it first time I changed it...back of engine..tucked up under the intake...can barely get to it from underneath with car jacked up..not gettin it from above...cant even see it from above 
I can just hear the engineers finishing up their design when one of them comes running into the room waving a drawing saying, "Oh golly jeepers, or darn, we forgot the oil filter. We'll have to stick it some place, any room left anywhere, any ideas?".
My Saturn is pretty bad.. its on the rear of the engine block. I sorta have to reach around hot exhaust pipes, and sharp rusty metal.. and go mainly by feel.. it always makes a big mess on the passenger side inner cv boot..
The filter on the KIA has to be one of the best filter locations ever.. when talking about spin on filters. Its at the front of the engine block, up high enough to where no rocks or debris could take it out, but the access for the filter is so easy.. I could do a full oil change on the KIA without jacks and jack stands, but I still use them just to make things a bit easier.
Some have gotten better. Can anyone out there comment on Accords from the past few years? My 89 had it on the back of the block, halfway up, and mounted horizontally. Always had to have the car on ramps and often got hot oil running down my arm.
My 2012 Mazda3, daughter's 1999 I30, and GF's previous 2003 Highlander all had them easily accessible and mounted baseplate up and pretty accessible.
It does seem like some of them are positioned as an afterthought.
My Dad's '97 Thunderbird with the the 4.6 modular has to qualify as the most hateful OF location I've ever had the displeasure of trying to access. It requires a cup wrench and probably 24 inches of 3/8 drive extension. The access for the extension is through the fenderwell. After it's off - more fun trying to physically pull the OF up between the fenderwell and and the exhaust manifold. There's no way to drop it out the bottom.
It seems that the alloted engine compartment space in the TBird overall is about 20% too small for the 4.6 to be serviced reasonably. His '97 Crown Vic with the same engine is a piece of cake by comparison.
The last one I truly hated was my wife's 1984 Chevy Cavalier that she had when we got married. I ripped the back of my hand or burned myself EVERY time I changed that filter, mechanic's gloves or not.
The '69 and '66 big-blocks are good/bad. The filter is horizontal and right at the front of the engine. Easy-peasy on the '66, don't even need a creeper... but the '69 has the sway bar, K-member, lower radiator hose, and PS pulley all wrapped around it so its a trick working the filter up and out once its unscrewed.
Back when I had a smallblock Mopar I wasn't crazy about the location on the back passenger's side of the block, but at least it wasn't like the 80s M-bodies that had the location surrounded by a gigantic pre-catalyst. :-/
How about the newer Ford Escape 1.6L Ecoboost as posted from the linked thread below. It's a doozy. Might make some earlier complaints look relatively minor.
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=3058620
My Bronco's filter is really easy to access, but it dribbles oil all over the engine crossmember and front differential when you unscrew it. The previous owners always took it to shops/quick lubes who never bothered to wipe it off. I scraped off like a half inch of sludgy gunk off of those parts. I've been considering installing a filter relocation kit. A friend suggested I take a screwdriver and punch a hole in the filter, let it drain, and then unscrew it. I'll try that next time.
My Accord has the filter on the back of the engine, facing the firewall, about halfway up the engine. I have to jack it up high and get it from underneath. It dribbles oil on the exhaust pipe and CV shaft.
My other vehicles aren't too bad.
2000 mazda protégé 2/3rd up the back of the block under the intake. With A/C, etc, I could just barely get my arm in there. I used a cup wrench on the factory.
My '04 CR-V had it sticking out horizontally on the back of the engine, conveniently located over the CV boot and the frame. Guaranteed to make a mess when it was removed. It says something when Honda made a special oil deflector tool just for that reason. The '08 has the same basic engine, but there's an extension that takes the mount from where it was to just behind the oil pan. Now the filter is vertically mounted right near the drain plug. No mess, no fuss.
Originally Posted By: DSparks
Gf's 2002 ford focus 2.0...had to actually search for it first time I changed it...back of engine..tucked up under the intake...can barely get to it from underneath with car jacked up..not gettin it from above...cant even see it from above
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I had a '95 Tbird for a few years and I hear you on that.
Originally Posted By: chestand
My Dad's '97 Thunderbird with the the 4.6 modular has to qualify as the most hateful OF location I've ever had the displeasure of trying to access. It requires a cup wrench and probably 24 inches of 3/8 drive extension. The access for the extension is through the fenderwell. After it's off - more fun trying to physically pull the OF up between the fenderwell and and the exhaust manifold. There's no way to drop it out the bottom.
It seems that the alloted engine compartment space in the TBird overall is about 20% too small for the 4.6 to be serviced reasonably. His '97 Crown Vic with the same engine is a piece of cake by comparison.
Yep, I think it's the same on all the Mazda engines of that era. My 2.0L has it there. It's a pain, especially if a gorilla has installed the last filter.
I'm getting good at it with about 75K of driving my '03 Protegé5
Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
2000 mazda protégé 2/3rd up the back of the block under the intake. With A/C, etc, I could just barely get my arm in there. I used a cup wrench on the factory.
I think it was the Hummer H3 Alpha (V8 model) that had provision on the front suspension crossmember for an oil drip shield attachment. I'm not sure if it was for the filter, but I believe that it was. Regardless, if you're planning on having oil draining onto the frame, it's not a great design.
The 2008 Dodge Ram we have at work with the 4.7L V-8 has what appears to be a factory oil filter drain "channel" attached to the frame. It looks like a miniature rain gutter from a roof. The filter is on the lower driver side corner of the engine, and it sits directly above the frame rail, so there's a handy channel fixed to the frame.
Images from: http://www.ramforum.com/f38/oil_change_mess_solutions_anyone-22135/index2.html
Images from: http://www.ramforum.com/f38/oil_change_mess_solutions_anyone-22135/index2.html- Status
