kaneman23

The 4Runner was due for an oil change so I picked up a case of Mobil1 and a NAPA Gold Filter this afternoon. Everything was going smooth as normal until I started the truck..... Oil started spewing from the filter as soon as I cranked it over, so I shut it down quick (within 10 seconds)... Talk about a freaking mess! There must have been a quart and a half that leaked all over the place. I had oil all over the skid plates, undercarriage, drive belts, and drive way. It took almost 2 hours to clean it all up!

Apparently, the gasket on the filter was defective because it didn't seal. It appears that it was cut wrong because it wasn't the same width throughout. I had to call my wife and have her pick up a new filter (M1) and another case of oil because I wasn't sure how much I lost, nor did I feel guessing to top it off.

MORAL of the STORY... VERY CAREFULLY INSPECT the gaskets on your oil filters. NAPA Gold may do a good job filtering BUT I WILL NEVER buy one again. I will stick to the Toyota or Mobil1 filters..

That was $60 oil change! :pat:

Erich_870

I hear ya!!! I change my own oil, have done it since I got my rig 3 years ago. My girlfriend wanted me to change her's on her Heep. I drained it, put the drain plug back on. Took off the old filter, oiled the seal of the new filter with some fresh oil. Screwed it on a little more than hand tight and filled it back up. The next day she was driving to class when is started spewing oil. She saw the oil pressure was gone, but kept driving 1.5 more and parked it then called me. ,"What have you done to my car you idiot!!!!" was what I heard on the line. I rushed up there with some kitty liter for the parking lot and tried to figure out what was wrong. I couldn't see any holes and I had a test so I had to call a tow and get that done. She took it to Jiffy L. or some place and the guy showed her what had happend. I saw her later that day and tried to get here to tell me. She said the guy told her not to tell, but to show me and that I would know in 0.0001 sec what the problem was Well, my lesson for the day was that some times the oil filter seal will stick to the block and when you put the new filter on, everything looks great for a bit till it moves and you cover the engine bay with oil. :pat: I talked to my dad who has change his oil for years and years and he has never heard or thought of looking for that. I think its just a Heep thing

Yoda

I have seen the "stuck" old O ring several times, but only the first time did I not see it first. One guy I used to work with did the oil cleanup many times cause he NEVER looked. Of course, he installed spark plugs into aluminum heads with a 3/8" impact too!

AgRunner06

I always use Toyota oil filters. The gasket is a rubber O-ring.

jimbo74

i have seen the double gasket many times...... i also work in a shop though so i do more oil changes in a week then most people will over the course of 2-3 years

Bennito

When I was still living with the folks, I was often asked to help with my mom's '85 Toyota Camry. The common tasks were rotating the tires and changing the oil. Strange, once my dad figured out that he had a free tire rotator, my mother's car must have had the tires rotated every 3000 miles.

I changed the oil per instructions from my dear old dad, which never included verifying that the old oil filter gasket is still in place. The seal was good enough to hold the oil prior to startup. But on the first trip to the store, a few quarts of oil were spilled enroute. A few quarts of oil were added and the trip home was made semi-successfully. My dad, figuring that I wasn't strong enough to seat the oil filter slid under the car and, sure enough, got a few more rotations out of it. Needless to say, the same oil leak happened on the next trip.

Pulling the "new" oil filter we found the gasket to be in miserable shape. Checking the block, we found another rubber gasket to be in miserable shape. Needless to say I was a bit embarrassed.

It was only a week later that I found one of the friends of the family had recently destroyed their Toyota Camry's engine. Fortunately for them, Jiffy Lube had performed the oil change and claimed responsibility for the dual-gasket mishap (though we should note the driver was at fault for continuing on w/ the CE light on).

To this day i oil the new gasket with the old gasket. Shame on me for not using new oil, but this is how I check that I have removed the old oil filter and gasket.


PS, aren't all oil filter's equipped with rubber gaskets?

kaneman23

This wasn't a case of the stuck gasket believe it or not. I think it's a case of me not double checking the part numbers on the NAPA filter that the parts guy gave me. The more I looked at that filter last night the more it looks like it was "pinched".

BT17R

The "double-gasket" pitfall is fairly common, especially on a new vehicle where the original O-ring was tightened against an unlubed surface like the block or adapter. I once saw a new but burned to a crisp Camry sitting at a Toyota dealership. The owner's son tried to save Mom some cash with a DIY first oil change. Oops.

gtaSR5

That happened to my new car a year ago. Brought it to the dealership for it's first oil change. Well I drive a mile down the road and smoke was everywhere and the dash lights were flashing. I pulled over and called the dealership and they told me to drive it back. :wtf: Drive it a mile in this condition!?! I got it towed on their expense instead... it was embarassing getting a new vehicle towed.

Rick F.

I've been changing my own oil for over 25 years and I've had the old gasket stick to the block a few times. I make it a habit to run my fingers over the sealing surface on the block (especially on my engines where I couldn't can't do a visual) before I install the new filter. I've even found debris that had fallen from above on soem of my old "domestic" vehicles (of course, Toyota engines don't have external crud since they don't leak oil in the engine compartment... at least not without some help...).

Chuki

I work at Napa, and use Napa oil filters on everything... The problem he had was not with the little gasket that seals up against the block. It was the internal gasket. OEM filters use a black one, Napa filters are generally orange. What happen is during assembly the gasket gets slightly moved, then it gets finished up. Thrown into a box, and out the door. When he turned his rig, the internal gasket was blocking the way into the filter, and the bypass couldn't even have helped ya here. It spewed out between the seal, where the weak spot was. I have seen a couple of them come through our store. It's not just napa filters either, napa filters are by wix of course, and I have seen, Wix, Fram, Purolator, and even a Hastings (amsoil) filter like that.

One thing everyone needs to consider, when you go to a parts house. Double check your parts please! People try and do some crazy crap, to return there "used" parts. And sometimes they get by, and then we pull them off the shelf. You take it home, it's used, broken, etc...

You also wouldn't beleive how they ship some of the dropships. I've seen pallets of waterpumps, that look like they thrown it off a clif a couple hundred times.

Check your parts at the parts house, can save you time, money, and alot of frustration. I always check all parts before the customer walks out the door. But when were extremely busy, somtimes we just don't have that kinda time.

~Jess

Glenn

Good advice Jess. I have been a NAPA filter user for a long time, and have never had problems with them.

I heard that Wix was made by Dana somewhere, With the amount of rebadging that goes on in the oil filter industry, it's hard to tell what is what sometimes. I know that Fram and Pennzoil are the same.

I now use Amsoil filters.

kaneman23

That's exactly what happened! I've done the double gasket thing myself in the past but this one was just bizzare...

I've heard only GREAT things about the NAPA Gold filters.. MAYBE I will give them another chance. I just need to check the filter next time..

User 051420

UH OH! Fram and pennzoil are the same?!!? F***, that seemed to be the only "better" brand that Kragen had. Should I take that crap off? What should I get? Maybe goto Napa, and get a gold.

MTL_4runner

The old double gasket will leak like a sieve....I can attest o that!
Every time you do an oil change you need to look and be sure the old gasket came off with the filter.

lunatic14r

I have seen the double gasket syndrome many of time in my shop we call it the exxon valdieze it never fails we get a new oil changer in and with in 2 weeks it happens to them its amazing how big of a mess 1 or 2 quarts makes on the floor

Chuki

Dana owns Wix, Wix is the filter part of there whole ordeal. Dana owns Victor Reinz, who does gaskets. Just like valvoline, go down the chem isle at your local napa. Everything thing there is made by valvoline just about.... Oh and you valvoline nuts. Go buy Napa brand oil. It's also made by valvoline. Just badged in a Napa bottle. Theres napa longlife (valvoline highmilage rebadge) and even a Napa Synthetic blend too. Cheaper then valvoline, and its the same stuff.

Right now Napa conventional motor oil is on sale for .99 go grab some of that valvoline

Oh and a heads up for all your folks, Napa is now adding a third line of oil filters to there selection. We have silver which is bottom of the line (still better then fram), and the new line which I beleive is gonna be called Nascar Select, and then our gold line. All of course are made by wix

Glenn

Clicky.

CSDenofrio

2003 4runner sr5 v6 purchased 2 days ago.For 4500.00 owner changed oil before I picked up. My wife drove to work all dash lights came on motor had seized up . Lost all oil filter went up 5 threads and blew oil all over engine compartment. Had Suv towed and garge found right oil filter but the base theards was wrong size to large.. Made in Mexico .Napa is not responeding with rep yet. Crank seized up then we freed up crank and now found spun bearings on 2 cylinders .All the cash in the world. Low income family of 4 just making ends meet.

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

This is a very old thread just so you are aware .