HELP I can't get oil filter off Corsa B (or what's remaining of it)

[Vince70]

Well it serves me right I guess but a friend of mine needed her car serviced and is rather skint so I offered to do it for her and now I wish I never started it..

 

Everything was going fine till I got to the spin on oil filter and I couldn't turn it anti-clockwise with the oil filter ratchet and then I decided to put a hole through it with a screwdriver to turn it and all I've got now is a mess of what was once a filter and I'm in a worse position than when I started.

 

Any suggestions on what I should do next.

[oldcars]

Anyone near you have a set of the pliers you can get to remove filters, that might be your best bet.

[Cavcraft]

I'm pretty sure the last one we did like that went (i.e came off) with more screw drivering. Failing that...

 

 

[Bren]

Whack a ford v4 over it.

 

Pour BOILING water on it - the expansion should loosen it off.

[phil_lihp]

Are you turning it the right way?  I only say this because I had exactly the same on my old Nova, spent about half an hour butchering the thing then when the penny dropped and I tried turning it the other way it came off no problem.  I can't remember if it was threaded the opposite way to normal though or if I was just being a bit special about it.

[jonathan_dyane]

Careful use of cold chisel on the silver collar bit where it butts up with the engine. Ideally using lump hammer...

[Andrew353w]

I'm pretty sure the last one we did like that went (i.e came off) with more screw drivering. Failing that...

 

 

I carry a set of these (only BIGGER) in my toolbox for precisely these jobs. The chains invariably snap when asked to shift a filter on THAT tight! Clean up the filter as much as you can before using the grips as (obviously!) the oil contamination will cause it to slip. Good luck......

[Vince70]

Thanks for the advice..

I managed to get it off after about two hours of swearing and cuts lol..

Thanks Bren for boiling water idea and it worked a treat I also managed to borrow a set of grips that just went round the filter base with a bit of persuasion and I finally got the filter off.

 

I've never done a filter that had welded itself on that bad before and it looks like going by the rust around it that it's quite a few years old.

 

Now where's the plasters lol.

[spike60]

To help it off next time put a film of oil on the rubber seal and only screw on handtight.

[Cavcraft]

To help next time sell it to that dickhead in Chester

 

 

EFA

[CHRIS1980]

What really annoys me about cars are no matter what car it is,the oil filter is a fucker to get to. Why do they design cars like that? I had one exception to this and it was a mini,take the grill off and there you go. It even went on the the right way up so when you take it off you don't get oil up your sleeve,in your face etc. and you can fill it with fresh oil when you put a new one on.

[MarvinsMom]

drat.... and i was going to suggest fire.....

 

lovely, lovely fire.....

[twosmoke300]

If you think that oil filters difficult to get at you are in for a shock on other cars !

[Squire_Dawson]

Good grief. It took this long for somebody to suggest the obvious -

 

BURN IT

 

This place ain't what it used to be, you're all buffoons &c &c &c.

[HH-R]

Weigh it in.

 

Oh, it's fixed?

 

Weigh it in.

[sierraman]

Another example of where somebody before has made a right corned beef hash of it. I had a mate like that he used to do everything 'fucking tight'.

 

You say about them being a pain, best ive ever seen is 1.4 16v Renault, on side of engine literally bang in front of your eyes. Easy

[twosmoke300]

Saab 2.0 and 2.3 are lovely and easy .

Corsa 1.7d are a fiddle til you get the hang of them . Esp when someone leaves the starter cover off and you drop the filter on the live terminal

[Stanky]

I'll echo TS300 here, having serviced the ex-Vantman Saab I was very pleasantly surprised that the filter is just an element that lives in a housing near the top fo the engine, so instead of rolling around under the car undoing a canister one and getting oil in your eyes (ask me how I know) you undo the lid, and lift it out the top. Then put the new one in and put the lid back on. It literally couldn't have been easier.

 

I hope you were suitably rewarded for your time, effort and lost blood?

[michael1703]

I use "red rubber grease" on oil filter o rings, it's quite waxy

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I managed to get it off after about two hours of swearing and cuts lol..

 

Hope you remembered to take the traditional photograph:

 

[Honey Badger]

V6 accord coupe is a piece of piss, whack the car on right full lock and it's there in the Wheel arch, you don't even need to jack it up to change the oil if you use a Pela pump, took about 20 min last time I did it.

[Vince70]

It's quite an easy filter to get to on the Corsa and not a bad little car to work on but my guess is the oil and filter hadn't been changed in at least a good 5 years which for this car was only about 5/6000 miles ago as it hardly had any use in its lifetime and I think someone must of tightened the Oil filter up with a oil filter tool connected to about 6 foot of pipe rather than doing it up hand tight.. But at least now when it next gets serviced I will be able to the bloody thing off again...

 

The coolant also looked terrible as it was just a murky rusty brown mess and I think it's never had a flush in the last 22 years so the expansion tank also had to come off for a good clean out as the thing looked blocked up solid with crap so now a couple of litres of concentrated pink has gone back in the car and things are looking a lot better now and the heater is like a furnace but only warmer..

 

The good thing is though the oil is staying nice and clean so my trusty Pela must of got every last drop of the 4.2 litres of old crap oil that came out that engine..

 

So the next job is I've got to fit a horrible Chinese head unit which has just been bought on eBay for 11 quid new so I think the quality isn't going to be up to much on that one.

 

I've come to the conclusion that all Vauxhalls are shit but at least this one still has its front bumper and headlights lol