Post your wrong oil filter stories!

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A friend has a pontoon boat with a 4.3 litre Mercrusier sterndrive. Our local marina changed the oil and filter but put the wrong filter on that was a little too long. A sort run time later the boat owner heard the oil warning buzzer going off. By the time he shut it down he had to have a new engine. The engine compartment was showerd in oil from a hole rubbed in the filter.
 
This isn't too bad of a "wrong filter" story but demonstrates why not to go to instant oil change places. I took my 2000 GMC Sierra into a oil change place and once I got home I crawled under it to make sure they put on the correct filter and it wasn't over tightened. It was the wrong filter, no damage was done and I drove it right back to the shop. They came back and said it was the correct filter. I brought the Valvoline filter catalog printout with me to show them the error. They then changed it to the correct one. Apparently it was listed incorrectly in their computer system, so every truck like mine (a fairly common one) was going to get the wrong filter. This was the last time I ever took a vehicle to someone else to change the oil. This was a national chain also.
 
An Esso station changed the oil and filter on my neighbors Fiat Ducato diesel delivery van,they didn't have the right filter in stock and it was sat night,the guy doing the oil change found one that looked the same and put it on without saying a word.

He was making a trip to Austria that night but didn't get 1km before the engine was knocking loudly.The engine was toast,i saw the engine apart when the stations insurance adjuster came to look at it,the mains and rod bearings looked like they were totally dry and had been ground down.

The filter the Esso station put on looked the similar but the mounting plate holes were totally different,the threads were the same,i don't know what could be different internally that would cause the starvation.The stations insurance took the new and original filter and covered the new engine and the weeks worth of lost income.
 
So tell us exactly what was wrong about the filter and what would the consequences have been if you had not changed it. I just want to make sure it was not just putting the longer filter on in place of that short one gm uses.
 
I am not sure what it rubbed on, **** but I will ask the friend.

An interesting note that the same friend had an almost new Suburban and when he went floating on a nerby river the Suburban got parked a little to close to the river bank when it was parked downriver and the river was rising. When the friend floated down to the truck is had water over the floorboards and he could not get it out. He went back the next day and it had floated downriver and was upside down. I told him I was glad he was not a pilot!
 
back when i was much younger, i used to go to wal mart and put a really good expensive filter in a super tech box, and vice versa. i got a good filter for cheap, and someone expecting a really good filter got a cheap one. i guess this is more their wrong oil filter story then it is mine, but i wanted to tell it anyways. i wonder what kind of greif customer service gave them when they tried returning it. its wal mart so they probably didnt ask a single question.

lesson leanred, always check your box before buying!
 
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Originally Posted By: Jakegday
back when i was much younger, i used to go to wal mart and put a really good expensive filter in a super tech box, and vice versa. i got a good filter for cheap, and someone expecting a really good filter got a cheap one. i guess this is more their wrong oil filter story then it is mine, but i wanted to tell it anyways. i wonder what kind of greif customer service gave them when they tried returning it. its wal mart so they probably didnt ask a single question.

lesson leanred, always check your box before buying!


That's why they started plastic wrapping their expensive filters. If you see a Mobil 1 filter with the plastic ripped open, take a look, there might be a OCOD in there.
 
I reckon you're not the first. I've had parts counter guys check inside the box before ringing me up--especially when I'm really dressed like a slob in my oil change clothes.
 
Originally Posted By: Jakegday
back when i was much younger, i used to go to wal mart and put a really good expensive filter in a super tech box, and vice versa. i got a good filter for cheap, and someone expecting a really good filter got a cheap one.


Obviously creating bad karma for yourself ... it will repay you someday.
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One time I got the oil changed in my Mercury Villager. I bought the oil and filter and brought in to the shop. I bought a Mobil 1 synthetic media filter that was on sale. I didn't do enough research to make sure it was the proper thread size.

I pulled out of the shop parking lot and drove to the Burger King down the street. As I was picking up my order at the window, my check oil light came on.

I drove back down the street to the shop and told them about it.
I was told that as I was driving out of the parking lot my new oil filter had popped off the engine and was laying on the ground with a steady stream of fresh oil following me all the way to Burger King. Someone tried to stop me but couldn't get there quick enough.

They installed a proper filter and new oil and I drove away feeling like a total jakkass. Thank goodness I was using Tufoil engine additive, otherwise my engine would've been toast after running for fifteen minutes with zero oil in the case.
 
This may seem like a minor thing to some people, or nothing at all but I installed a new K&N oil filter with Syntec 10-30 oil in my car last February, and I am now noticing startup noises which I was told is the fault of the *premium* K&N oil filter's poor ADBV letting oil drain out of the oil filter.
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So, you live and learn. Got the K&N on sale with the Syntec, figured I had the best, or one of the best oil filters out there, but was told to install a Purolator, which I plan to do, maybe today.
 
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Originally Posted By: SuperBusa
Originally Posted By: Jakegday
back when i was much younger, i used to go to wal mart and put a really good expensive filter in a super tech box, and vice versa. i got a good filter for cheap, and someone expecting a really good filter got a cheap one.


Obviously creating bad karma for yourself ... it will repay you someday.
06.gif


oh believe me, it already has
 
Originally Posted By: Lurch
This may seem like a minor thing to some people, or nothing at all but I installed a new K&N oil filter with Syntec 10-30 oil in my car last February, and I am now noticing startup noises which I was told is the fault of the *premium* K&N oil filter's poor ADBV letting oil drain out of the oil filter.
31.gif
06.gif


So, you live and learn. Got the K&N on sale with the Syntec, figured I had the best, or one of the best oil filters out there, but was told to install a Purolator, which I plan to do, maybe today.


It has a silicone ADBV, they are actually very good. But like with anything, there are sometimes defects.
 
Originally Posted By: Lurch
This may seem like a minor thing to some people, or nothing at all but I installed a new K&N oil filter with Syntec 10-30 oil in my car last February, and I am now noticing startup noises which I was told is the fault of the *premium* K&N oil filter's poor ADBV letting oil drain out of the oil filter.
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So if you change the oil & filter on this vehicle, and start it up with a dry filter on it, does it make the same noises at start up? If the noises are due to the ADBV leaking, it would make sense that the same noises would be heard after a filter change (unless you can completely fill the new filter with oil when you change it).
 
in 1992 a lube tech thought he knew all of the wix oil filter numbers for every car. the owner of the shop usually picked out the particular parts for each car as services were to be done.
so this time the owner didn't get teh parts for a simple oil change on a 1991 v6 pathfinder.
Well the pathfinder left, 3 hours later we get a phone call from a very upset customer, who unfortunately the owner of the pathfinder. his engine seized and there was a lot of smoke billowing out of it.
So we sent a tow truck to get the car, the owner told the tow truck driver to bring it directly to nissan and give us the tow bill, and we didn't have a huge say in it. the dealer diagnosed it as having no oil in it. We the lube tech swore he put oil in, and he did. a check of the oil filter number yielded that the size was teh same, but p/n was for a 4-runner. OOPS!
when the guy got on the freeway the pressure pushed past the o-ring and he just started bleeding out oil. We had to pay the dealer for a new engine, and they turned the screws onto us, and they made a lot of money that day. 4 weeks for a new motor to arrive, via slow boat, then new everything they could think of and after $7400, PLUS having to pay for the guys suv rental car, which was $80/day back then, yeah.. glad I wasn't the owner that day!
The lube tech didn't get fired, or even yelled at, just told him to be more careful next time. How'd this happen? the guy was the owner's brother's friend, they all grew up in the same neighborhood back in the day.
the insurance company didn't pay 100% because they said it was neglegance on the shops part and they only paid for the engine block itself, not all the other accessories and labor.
oops!
 
Went to walmart for a coworker's 4.3 S10, I figured from memory it was a PF52, the long PF47/3387. They had AC delco filters in that size only on the shelf but they weren't listed in the book.

The book said use a 3387, the short one but with the same thread, bypass, etc and I got it. Apparently supertech has no long PF52 cross for part # shelf space simplification.

Opened the little skidplate hatch on his truck and there was another PF52 staring me in the face. In hindsight only the 4WDs (his was one) took the long filter.

I put a saturn OE brand fram-made s-series 3414 cross on a dodge spirit 2.5 that I just did the head gasket on. The filter was rusty, undersized, a fram, had a lot not going for it. Had to get the "peanut butter" out of the oil system with a couple quick changes. Car usually takes a PH8/ 16 big can sized filter.

Also ran a 3614 on a geo prism I had that originally took this thimble sized filter. Gasket diameter slightly different but it held.

All above examples the thread was the same; get that right and the odds of it at least holding the oil in are way better.
 
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