Tool advice

[dollywobbler]

This thread might be a go-er. My trusty oil filter removal tool has broken, after I ambitiously tried to use it to remove a suspension sphere. It didn't like it. It was one of these fellows.

 

Pretty handy as it happens, but could I do better? The filter I'm looking at is on the BX. It can't be a tool that sticks out too far from the filter as the radiator is in the way. I do have an unused strap tool that I tried using, but there isn't enough space. It remains unused.

 

Anyway, thoughts on the above and any other tooling thoughts.

[Junkman]

Those spheres can be a right bitch to get off. I did it a long time ago by drilling a hole in it, then inserting a rod onto which I stuck a long pipe.

[trigger]

I don't know if it's of any good but I've always used these ones.

 

 

You just use a 3/8 driver racket or a spanner to turn it and the jaws clamp on the filter and spins it off, They have never failed.

[dollywobbler]

I went to a bloke with the proper tool and a big hammer. Cost me £10. However, I'd forgotten that I'd broken the oil filter tool until I decided I really should give the BX a service. Only been on the To Do list since I bought it in February...

[Vanny]

I've always used a hammer and a long screw driver on a BX.

 

The multitude of different oil wrenches available is incredible, but non give as good access as a long screw driver.

[dollywobbler]

Bit messy though, surely?

[Vanny]

not if you do it right  

 

How many non messy oil changes have you ever managed? 

 

I find the trick is a square shafted driver, and start so that the handle is above the centre line of the filter AFTER it has been loosened.

 

 

I guess it's just a skill you develop with practice.

[Tetleysmooth]

I've always preffered the strap type filter remover, because if you've been sold the wrong filter, the old one isn't completely mullared. That said, the last oil change I did, the filter was on so tight, it broke my strap. I now have one of those three pronged muthas. Does the job, but completely buggers the filter.

[meggersdog]

I use these

from machinemart

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/oil-filter-wrench?da=1&TC=SRC-oil+filter

[ruffgeezer]

I use these

from machinemart

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/oil-filter-wrench?da=1&TC=SRC-oil+filter

 

Don't get the ones with the hinged jaws, they are utter shit.

 

[Richard]

One option is to own a late model Escort TD for a while, then Citroens will seem quite easy to work on.

[catsinthewelder]

I've got one of these shite spec strap wrenches

 

which was generally ok but is currently sitting in Ms C's sewing basket as it snapped (removing a sphere) and needs sewing back together.

 

This led to me using the hammer and screwdriver technique at the tech weekend last summer which itself led to utter failure when the very tight oil filter started to tear open.  Fortunately Caffiend is a very organised type who had bought a proper tool only the day before which I proceded to christen by utterly covering it and me in oil.

 

Theres nothing wrong in principle with using a screwdriver to get the filter off but in future I'll try a proper tool first.

 

I seem to remember the one that got me out the shit looked like this

 

[fordperv]

for all my oil filter wrench needs I use one of these old school bad boys, ive had it for about 14 years still going strong

 

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I only have eyes for the Boa Constrictor Tool. It has never failed to remove an oil filter. Sometimes the cap on a master cylinder cannot be removed by hand. I take on the role of a 1950s housewife struggling to open a marmalade jar. That is when my handsome Boa Constrictor Tool strides into the kitchen and effortlessly twists off the lid. 

 

Cons: needs clearance for handle, oil filter must be reasonably clean

[Vanny]

for all my oil filter wrench needs I use one of these old school bad boys, ive had it for about 14 years still going strong

 

 

I use that for removing suspension spheres. It sometimes doesn't work, which is the point at which i reach for the cold chisel and hammer and beat the crap out of the thing while on full height. Never fails

 

 

Hmmm, for the sake of full disclosure, it should be noted that i have on more than one occasion resorted to changing brake discs with an angle grinder! I fear LandRover ownership beckons.

[Albert Ross]

I'm with Trigger and his squishy tripod. They're fucking great, I've had mine about 20 years or more even, and use it every day in my job, and it gets borrowed too. It's NEVER failed to get one off, even when a bloke drove onto the forecourt, and asked for me, quoting "I hear you have the best tool in the area" I blushed, and showed him. I slackened his filter, he popped it off there and then, and carried out an oil change in the car park. He then offered me a fiver, I declined... At Christmas, I had a card and 4 bottles of ale delivered, from "Tight Filter Man". No idea what they tasted like, I couldn't get the tops off.

[wuvvum]

I have one of those metal-strap type tools like in the first pic, which isn't the best thing ever.  When that can't manage, I have a great big f*ck-off pair of adjustable pliers, which haven't yet failed to get a filter off (although access was rather tight on the Rover 400).

[overrun]

I have always enjoyed good fortune with a P40 linishing disc stuck to my hand,

Unfortunately the roll is almost empty these days, so I may have to revert back to the 'proper' tools.

 

This thread has just brought back memories of the old hammer and screwdriver method on the filter for my dads old Freeloader.

That didn't work. I made a mess.

 

Luckily the filter removal tool managed to grip the base of the filter - there was nothing else left, after various removal attempts.