Here is a diagram of how the parts go together. Likely the o-ring at the top was not seated correctly.

https://www.tonk.ca/r107CD1/Program/Engine/107/M116_38/18-110.pdf

 

Did you remove the old seal ? .

 

Yes. I installed new rubber seal and copper crush washers. I am going to pick-up a new filter package this morning and try this again.

Is the spring inside supposed to be pushed down hard and locked with the washer or should I apply pressure until it holds and then use the bolt to draw it up tight.

I feel like the bolt only has about an inch of threads and it would not allow the canister to seat tight before I ran out of thread. Meaning I felt if I tried to make the canister seat tighter I thought I would strip out the canister bolt threads and REALLY be screwed.

Going to pick up another filter and now more oil and try this again. Is there anything else I'm missing?

Ted

 

To AlterSchinken:

I re-reviewed the diagram you sent thank you. Is it possible when I spun the canister off that I also loosened #8 where the bolt threads into and now it won't allow the canister to seat tight before it ran out of threads?

I seem to recall when I removed the canister at the beginning of the oil change I loosened the bolt until I was able to turn it with my fingers and also spun the canister off with the bolt turning with the canister several times until it was free. Maybe I somehow turned that piece causing it to drop down?

While I have everything off this morning I want to check #8 again. If it is loose, what is the safest way to resecure it? I don't want to put a pair of plyers on it. Is there a nut on it so i can use a big socket? Any additional info would be appreciated.

I'll post what I find on my end.

Ted

 

To AlterSchinken:

I re-reviewed the diagram you sent thank you. Is it possible when I spun the canister off that I also loosened #8 where the bolt threads into and now it won't allow the canister to seat tight before it ran out of threads?

I seem to recall when I removed the canister at the beginning of the oil change I loosened the bolt until I was able to turn it with my fingers and also spun the canister off with the bolt turning with the canister several times until it was free. Maybe I somehow turned that piece causing it to drop down?

While I have everything off this morning I want to check #8 again. If it is loose, what is the safest way to resecure it? I don't want to put a pair of plyers on it. Is there a nut on it so i can use a big socket? Any additional info would be appreciated.

I'll post what I find on my end.

Ted

It looks like if this part was loosened a bit it could cause the filter assembly to tighten up on the element rather than the cannister, leaving a gap at the top. The manual shows a torque of 55 Nm, it has a hex (17, 19mm?) for tightening with a deepwell socket. I definitely would check it.

 

Make sure you remove old gasket from filter bowl see instructions

 

Hi there.

I did remove the old seal and applied oil to the new seal both sides before installing it thanks.

Ted

 

I pulled the canister down and wiped it as clean as I could and then reattached it until the bolt was snug and the canister stopped turning.

When you removed the canister after the disaster, what did the O ring look like? was it fully seated in the groove? Did it have any defects in it? Did you inspect it carefully?

This is where I'd be looking....be sure to post some pictures after you remove the canister again and inspect it.

 

I just changed the oil on my wife's car and when I went to install the canister filter I thought the rubber seal was snug against the housing because the bolt became tight and I did not want to overnight it.

I pulled the distributor wire and cranked the engine for about 10 secs to build up some oil pressure.

Started up the car and as it literally sprang to life I saw a huge oil puddle growing under the engine so I shut it off right away and threw a huge chunk of cardboard under the car but it was too late. Almost all of the oil I had just put in the engine was now on the driveway.

I got the car jacked up and when I checked on the oil canister the bolt was still tight but I could see the oil blowby along the filter seal and the housing. WTF?

I pulled the canister down and wiped it as clean as I could and then reattached it until the bolt was snug and the canister stopped turning. I pushed the car into the garage until I could address it later. I plan on throwing that oil filter and seal out and try another.

I spent the next 2 hours cleaning the oil slick on my driveway.

Has anyone had this happen to them? How could the canister bolt be that tight to the point where it feels like the threads are bottomed out and the seal still has a gap?

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Maybe I installed the spring and filter incorrectly? This is literally only the third time I have done an oil change on her car.

Thanks all.

Ted

Will happen when the old oil filter gasket does not come off with the old filter and is stuck on the engine block and you put a new filter on with essentially 2 gaskets. I will guess, your wife's car is a Toyota.

 

UPDATE:

Not sure why this member thinks my wife's car is a Toyota since I'm posting about her 380sl.

Anywhoo. So I did not check the O ring seal before I removed the canister today. After I removed the bolt and canister I checked part #8 and it appeared to be tight and not moving at all. I then took brake cleaner with a red spray tube and cleaned out the threaded hole that receives the bolt. Then I removed the bolt from the canister and carefully screwed it all the way until it bottomed out. Went it with no issues and snuggled down tight.

Decided to just install a brand new filter and seal just in case this one was not seating fir some reason. Got everything back together and installed the canister snug against the housing and as far as I could tell there was no gap. Put in almost 7 quarts (only 1 1/2 quarts left after the rest ended up on my driveway) said a prayer to the car gods and cranked the engine with the distributor lead off and the fuel pump disabled bout 10 secs just to prime the system.

Hit the key and then quickly looked underneath the car. Hoping there was not going to be a repeat oil spill I only had to wait about 3 secs before oil began to spray out from the top of the canister and come dripping down. Luckily this time I put a large drip pan just in case.

So now I'm once again saying WTF as I wipe off enough oil so I can stuck my head under the canister to see what is going on. I ran my fingers along the upper edge of the canister and could feel the Oring had popped out of the channel and was partially sticking out. I loosened the canister enough to get the seal back in place and decided to resecure the canister.

This time I made sure as I was tightening the bolt I held the canister and did not allow it to spin on. So word to the wise DO NOT LET THE CANISTER TO SPIN AS YOU TOGHTEN THE BOLT.

After getting the canister snug again I started the engine again and sprayed everything down with brake cleaner. After wiping a few time the drips began to slow down but now I started to get some drips from the washer at the head of the bolt. It was a steady drip until I snuggled the bolt a few times. There is still a tiny drip every minute or so from that washer at the bolt head so I may have to remove the canister again and replace that washer if it doesn't stop.

For today I turned the Exxon Valdez oil spill in my driveway to a tiny drip so I consider that a success. I'll try to carefully snug the bolt to see if I can stop the drip in a couple of days if it warms up.

Thank you to all who posted.

Ted

 

tfvesquire, I'm not trying to start another filter discussion , but would you mind sharing what brand of oil filter you used, and whether the o-ring came with it, or you had to get the o-ring separately? thanks

 

I like threads like this, not because I'm schadenfreude, instead its a heads up and helpful for the time we will have to do this task.
Thanks for sharing and good luck on solving the issue.

 

I have encountered a situation where an old seal was still in the groove (a different type of car, but used a similar filter element in a metal can that bolted in), and someone had placed another seal over it, and had leaking issues. In that case the car had been sitting for about 50 years before I got hold of it, and it took a lot of work to chip out the very hardened rubber seal.

You really do have to pay attention to little things like this, don't assume the last folks who worked on it did the job correctly. If there is remains of an old seal stuck in the groove, you're gonna have trouble...inspect carefully!

 

Many years ago, my "not too smart" neighbor asked me to change the oil on his (Toyota/Nissan/Honda?).
I said "Fine. Go get me some parts"
I finish the job, then so he drives off....pumping out oil like a fire hose.
The Fool tells me later: "There were lots of filters so I just grabbed one that looked right"
D'oh!

 

I appreciate the comments and sggestions. To Jforb, I was the last person who performed an oil change on the car so I made sure the last filter and oring seal was tight an leak free.

Since my last post I snugged the canister bolt a couple more times and finally got the oil drip to stop. The oil filter I literally installed and then threw in the trash after the massive leak was a Hengst that I've installed before. The only local replacement was an STP from Autozone but it only came with the Oring and no washers do I had to reuse the washers that came with the Hengst.

Like I said above, the best advise I can give is not to let the canister rotate with the bolt as it is tightened or you can run the risk of doing exactly what I did. I let the car idle fir 30 mins with no leaks. I will take the car for a drive tomorrow to put some miles on the car and confirm it is still leak free upon returning to my garage.

Ted

 

Also meant to add there was no extra Oring on the housing either.

 

I had this happen on my old beemer with a spin-on canister filter. 100% operator error that time, I thought I had it tight enough, but I didn't. Regarding re-susing the washers. Not wishing to teach grandma an all that, but once you've used a copper crush washer, you can't really use it again, unless you revive it by heating it up red hot with a blow torch ( a chef's creme brulee torch will do, for the cooks amongst us) and plunging it into cold water. I personally shy away from this method, and bought a big box of assorted copper washers for just such jobs. I also use Hengst or Mann where I can, occasionally Bosch . It all depends on what GSF have in stock when I go shopping. Taking all the fleet into account, maybe 1 in 10 of them are missing something when I come to the job, or perhaps more likely, I've dropped it and not noticed before getting wiggy.