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Stuck oil filter

Soggy Biscuit

Soggy Biscuit

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 8, 2023
Member Number
1782
Posts
506
Location
Chester County, PA
Sooooooooo an oil change is supposed to the be easiest thing next to refilling the tire pressure. My oil filter must have been twisted on with Loctite or some shit instead of synthetic grease. The K&N bolt at the base was stripped long before I owned the bike. I wonder if the dealership's minions did the strip job or if the previous owner of the bike is the one who is guilty. Either way, the filter is trashed. It's in two pieces since trying the screwdriver method. I've used Goo-Gone to break the seal between it and the gasket and had no success, and I've only managed to get a small fraction of a turn before everything went FUBAR.

What am I to do besides call a shop tomorrow morning and have them pick the bike up and get charged money I wasn't planning on spending?
 
Might have to saw it off, which I am sure will be an outrageous PITA considering how much access there usually is. I have visions of a length of hacksaw blade cutting thru the flange of the filter's base until the base can be split radially, or at least open up enough so it can unscrew. Kind of worried about cross or damaged threads too.

That hacksaw blade won't have much movement and the chips are just where don't want them too... same with a die grinder, if you can even bring one to bear. A vibrating saw is a lot milder, or even a dremel.

I guess i'd be going for stuffing pieces of shop rag in all the passages I could reach and slowly cutting away whatever remaining parts of the filter you can get at, while constantly imperiling the threads on the oil filter mount.

If you can part the outer ring of the filter base where the gasket is from the hub portion which screws on, then perhaps you can divide the problem up... maybe get lucky and it will unscrew, leaving you just with the ring to pry off.
 
I've seen some stuck oil filters that came off without too much trouble after getting them good and hot. But as yours has been skewered, don't think you can heat the engine up now 😁

Maybe a picture of the situation could help with some brainstorming.
 
A much better idea than all that cutting ... coincidentally just watched a youtube engine rebuild vid where the guy needed to use a pipe wrench on the filter to get it moving.
 
ZoomerP said:
Glad that you got it off.

I like the two piece, clamping style of filter tool. Lisle makes good ones. They bite into the canister and put the torque closer to the mounting flange than a cap style tool. One of these can also fit into tight spots that a strap type can't reach.

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That Lisle filter wrench is a real beast. I have never seen a filter it would not remove.
 
Instead of creating another thread, I will continue with this one. I have another issue. My front brake feels as if the cable is getting hung up on something when I squeeze the lever. I removed the brake calipers, cleaned both even though there was very little build-up of gunk, and noticed one of the pistons on the right side isn't quite extending when the lever is squeezed. It takes a few squeezes to make it go all the way. Yes, I did make sure to lube the moving parts before wrenching everything back. Sorry purists, I lack a proper torque wrench so the calipers are poncho wrenched instead. The bolts are nice and tight.

Update: problem solved. Seems like the lubrication worked. The front brakes are back to working like new!
 
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Soggy Biscuit said:
Instead of creating another thread, I will continue with this one. I have another issue. My front brake feels as if the cable is getting hung up on something when I squeeze the lever. I removed the brake calipers, cleaned both even though there was very little build-up of gunk, and noticed one of the pistons on the right side isn't quite extending when the lever is squeezed. It takes a few squeezes to make it go all the way. Yes, I did make sure to lube the moving parts before wrenching everything back. Sorry purists, I lack a proper torque wrench so the calipers are poncho wrenched instead. The bolts are nice and tight.

Update: problem solved. Seems like the lubrication worked. The front brakes are back to working like new!
Click to expand...
Sometimes corrosion builds up under the quad seal. The corrosion hooves the seal. This makes it tighter. The wife had a dakota truck that corroded the tail gate pivot. This actually split the bedside from the bed breaking the factory spot welds. My xt caliper had gotten so tight it seized one side of the piston. This created a shelf in the the bore. I cleaned out the seal grooves, polished the piston and took a curved diamond file to the shelf in the bore. Good as new. This was from the road salt. It wrecks everything. My xt also seized the pads in the bracket. My front brake needed constant maintenance from the salt....why I like drum brakes for snow/winter bikes.
 
I'll take apart the calipers before winter begins and give them a proper cleaning and lube job. The silicone lube I sprayed on the right-hand pistons is still working incredibly well. Anything engine or transmission related will get sent to the shop.
 
Ya I chased the caliper issue. I got the best advice from a canyon racer. The race bikes got the calipers cleaned out once a year. And hardly ever needed new parts. Many used compressed air to blow out the pistons. I dont care for this method and find it dangerous. I use 2 piesces of 1/2 in steel bar stock with a spacer. The spacer could be anything like small block of wood..even a socket. This makes an inside out set of pliers. Then the piston can be grabbed on the inside and wiggled out. Haa if that makes sense. I blew one stuck piston out with air. The first time and last time 120psi x area of piston!!! Boom!
 
Ug the worst I had was so stuck I had to pump out the piston with a grease gun, air wouldn't move it. Helps with cleaning to fill the caliper with oil, then pump grease on top of it; grease only works fine but is a monster pita to clean out after. With an oil fill not much grease goes into the fill port you can blow most of it right back out via the caliper's cylinder.
 
Ya...the inside out pliers will wiggle a piston out like an absessed tooth. Archaic but effective. My fzr caluper sounded like a shotgun on compressed air.Then I did the math! Whoa!!
 
Not a bike but i have a 2013 vauxhall Astra 1.3cdti estate with a stuck oil filter housing , its one of those plastic housings that unscrews revealing the paper elliment and o rings, and will it heck come undone, its got a 32mm hax on the end and the six sided socket just rides off chewing a tip off the plastic hex everytime it does. I had a strap wrench on it and it started to physicaly bend the housing and i was concerned it would crack it was deforming it so much. Tried warming engine / boiling water .... no chance, The big jubile clip idea did not work it just spun, i might try that again only wraping the housing in a strip of old motorbike iner tube first. Migh end up buying a new housing and smashing the old one off i pieces .
 
I've not been in this situation yet. I count my blessings. I wonder what makes them get stuck sometimes?
 
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