Welp. The story begins here. Yesterday evening, after working some long hours recently, I decided that it would be somewhat therapeutic to 'turn a wrench.' So I went over to my parents house with three five quart containers of oil and changed the oil of both their cars and my own.
For my 99' Pontiac Sunfire 2.2L OHV, I had Mobil1 10W-30 High Mileage oil and a Napa Gold 1040 oil filter. Everything went smoothly except for the fact that I can't see the filter stem from underneath as it is obstructed by all sorts of wiring, framing, and other [censored]. But I finagled on the filter while successfully not searing the flesh on the exhaust from my massive pythons of arms, finished up, and arrogantly pulled out off the ramps without really checking - and only looking for a trail of oil to indicate any failure or deficiency. Neither was the case so I did a bit of a test drive and went home, stopping off on the way for some ice cold Sam Adams Summer Ale. All seemed well.
The following morning, being this one, I drove into work on my usual 30 mile commute. As I was on the highway I began to notice a plume of smoke resonating from what seemed to be my car. Of course, this couldn't be possible since my car, while winning no beauty contest prizes, doesn't burn any oil and generally runs very well. As I drew closer to work, I exited the highway near the airport and had to endure several stop lights and some stop and go traffic. At each light, I smelled and saw the presence of smoke coming from what seemed to be directly under my engine block. I began to worry, but sort of went into denial. I finally made it to work and saw a small pool of oil under my car and I wigged. Despite the fact I was wearing a shirt and tie, I reached down into the engine block as it seemed that the oil must be coming from the filter area, and dripping directly below onto what looks like the forward catalytic converter. I tried tightening the filter from the top of the car, and it was intractably obstinate to my efforts. But despite this, I was able to crank it tighter and ended up dirtying my white shirt.
After an annoying day of work, I got back in and drove home. It seemed the oil smoke was gone initially. But I realized to my chagrin that there was indeed some smoking, though noticeably less. And I got home, I again saw some dripping of oil onto the driveway and the acrid stench of oil burning off the exhaust system, though it was appreciable less. So I got out my ramps, raised the car, and sort of verified that it was indeed coming from the oil filter face plate that mounted the Napa Gold (Wix?) filter. I drove to the local Autozone and picked up the Mobil1 oil and fliter deal (five quarts and a M1 filter for $30 or $35) and actually found the 5W-30 flavor of High Mileage to my surprise.
I got back, put the Mobil1 filter on, and all seemed immediately well. No oil piddling or dripping on my driveway, so I topped off the car and did a test drive to insure everything was okay and again saw no oil dripping on my driveway after I got back.
So, the culprit was the Napa Gold filter...
So, what is up with this? I bought the Napa because I always had good luck and heard they were the bestest filter around. I paid over $7 after taxes for it a week ago and it seems that it was probably defective. I inspected it, and saw no apparent defects and I plan on writing them and returning the filter. I also plan of giving them the option of taking the thing back for QC purposes. But I feel let down and it might be a while before I buy a Napa/Wix filter again. I dunno, this seems a pretty rare failure of quality control, but has anyone else had a filter problem?
For my 99' Pontiac Sunfire 2.2L OHV, I had Mobil1 10W-30 High Mileage oil and a Napa Gold 1040 oil filter. Everything went smoothly except for the fact that I can't see the filter stem from underneath as it is obstructed by all sorts of wiring, framing, and other [censored]. But I finagled on the filter while successfully not searing the flesh on the exhaust from my massive pythons of arms, finished up, and arrogantly pulled out off the ramps without really checking - and only looking for a trail of oil to indicate any failure or deficiency. Neither was the case so I did a bit of a test drive and went home, stopping off on the way for some ice cold Sam Adams Summer Ale. All seemed well.
The following morning, being this one, I drove into work on my usual 30 mile commute. As I was on the highway I began to notice a plume of smoke resonating from what seemed to be my car. Of course, this couldn't be possible since my car, while winning no beauty contest prizes, doesn't burn any oil and generally runs very well. As I drew closer to work, I exited the highway near the airport and had to endure several stop lights and some stop and go traffic. At each light, I smelled and saw the presence of smoke coming from what seemed to be directly under my engine block. I began to worry, but sort of went into denial. I finally made it to work and saw a small pool of oil under my car and I wigged. Despite the fact I was wearing a shirt and tie, I reached down into the engine block as it seemed that the oil must be coming from the filter area, and dripping directly below onto what looks like the forward catalytic converter. I tried tightening the filter from the top of the car, and it was intractably obstinate to my efforts. But despite this, I was able to crank it tighter and ended up dirtying my white shirt.
After an annoying day of work, I got back in and drove home. It seemed the oil smoke was gone initially. But I realized to my chagrin that there was indeed some smoking, though noticeably less. And I got home, I again saw some dripping of oil onto the driveway and the acrid stench of oil burning off the exhaust system, though it was appreciable less. So I got out my ramps, raised the car, and sort of verified that it was indeed coming from the oil filter face plate that mounted the Napa Gold (Wix?) filter. I drove to the local Autozone and picked up the Mobil1 oil and fliter deal (five quarts and a M1 filter for $30 or $35) and actually found the 5W-30 flavor of High Mileage to my surprise.
I got back, put the Mobil1 filter on, and all seemed immediately well. No oil piddling or dripping on my driveway, so I topped off the car and did a test drive to insure everything was okay and again saw no oil dripping on my driveway after I got back.
So, the culprit was the Napa Gold filter...
So, what is up with this? I bought the Napa because I always had good luck and heard they were the bestest filter around. I paid over $7 after taxes for it a week ago and it seems that it was probably defective. I inspected it, and saw no apparent defects and I plan on writing them and returning the filter. I also plan of giving them the option of taking the thing back for QC purposes. But I feel let down and it might be a while before I buy a Napa/Wix filter again. I dunno, this seems a pretty rare failure of quality control, but has anyone else had a filter problem?
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