Success.
Wrap your wrench with some duct tape or electrical tape in multiple places to add more grip to it
If your filter socket wrench isn't a snug fit, wrapping some tape on the filter itself to take out the slack and prevent the slippage. Cloth electrician's friction tape comes to mind (if it' still being sold). It's worth a shot.
If you have a 16" pair of channel lock pliers or a large pipe wrench will work if you have room. It will deform the shell , but better than the screwdriver skewer method. Duct tape to add friction as mentioned before helps sometimes too.
Here's another vote for the channel locks if you have the room. The filter on my tractor vibrates itself so tight there is no other way to remove other than channel locks. It is a little unnerving to deform the filter, but it always has come off.
I have had great success with wrapping one layer of duct tape on the filter. Put steel wool on the duct tape then use the band type oil filter remover (you can also wedge steel wool under the band while it is on the filter). The steel wool really digs in. If doesn't work, bring it to the dealer.
Duct tape. Of course duct tape. Thanks, I wish I'd thought of that!
A couple wraps of that (in the CCW direction to grip with the tools) and then my big 14"... Ford wrench, plus a couple of scraped knuckles to sanctify the ritual [-]profanity[/-] incantations, and-- the filter moved about one millimeter. But it moved.
It took me almost two minutes to get it another 10 millimeters, and by then it was more rectangular than cylindrical (but still oil-tight). It was nearly two full freakin' turns between the wrench and a pair of channel-lock pliers before I'd consider it merely "hand tight".
The O-ring was crushed totally flat to the filter's metal rim, and they'd probably ground the filter metal into the engine casing until friction exceeded torque. I'm lucky they didn't gall the threads.
Of course now I'm wondering if the alleged "mechanic" had trouble sealing that filter to the engine casing's mating surface, but it seemed clean & smooth. I hope that the casing is tougher than the filter. The new filter's on finger-tight-plus-a-quarter-turn, and I'll leave a drip tray under the car for a couple days to see if it develops a leak.
Maybe post on priuschat . com for the prius geeks to give a shot at it.
Oops, guess the 2005 has a canister instead of a cartridge insert type oil filter.
It's just a Toyota dealer's regular cylindrical oil filter, but I thought John's photo looked familiar. I decided to post here first (it was a mechanical problem, not only Priutical) and then the duct tape did the trick.
I have so been there.
Your problem isn't really that it's stuck, but that those silly plastic cap oil filters slip, perhaps because different manufacturers make the oil filters slightly differently.
When you replace it, get the Fram filters that have a rough surface, so that you can get it quite tight by hand (and don't tighten it further).
Here's a question, Nords. When you get to the filter removal point, haven't you already drained the oil? That is, aren't you stuck unless you put in new oil?
I've never needed more than a cheap plastic filter cap and a bit of leverage from a torque wrench or a crescent wrench. Now that the first oil change is out of the way, I shouldn't need any specialized tools ever again. I like the grip on those Fram filters too.
And, yeah, we didn't encounter the filter problem until the oil was already drained, so this job took almost eight quarts of oil instead of just under four. But I buy it in five-quart jugs so we had plenty.
No great ideas here.
Where's a Machinist Mate 1st when you need one?
There are times when I really, really, miss the engineroom upper level tool box. And the ETMS equipment drawer.
Off topic, but responding to the original post: I'm a crappy backyard mechanic, and visit a lot of automotive/mechanical forums (just to see if I can learn anything), so I see it a lot, but that 'lefty-loosey'--'righty tighty' just drives me up a wall. It should be 'clockwise--to tighten' & 'counterclockwise--to loosen'. This is universal, whether you're turning a nut & bolt, oil filter, or a garden hose connection (unless you have an early 50's Chrysler vehicle that had reverse threads on the lugnuts on one side of the vehicle because they thought going down the road fast would loosen the lugnuts).
I think lefty-loosey and righty-tighty are a lot more memorable than the proper mechanic's references!
Right off the top of my head, the blades on rotary saws are secured by reverse-threaded screws. Of course [-]Easy-Out[/-] screw/bolt extractors are reverse-threaded. I'm sure other posters will remember more reverse-thread situations. Luckily the Navy mnemonic for those situations is "righty-roosey", so I'm usually not confused for long.
Nords, I seen to recall an incident with DW and DD where you made a comment about
me being cheap.
Kettle to pot: pay for an oil change.
I'm sorry. Again. I'm going to be apologizing for that offhanded comment for a long time, aren't I?
I don't mind the money-- it's the hassle factor of getting on the mechanic's appointment calendar, sitting in the waiting room, and then having him say "Eh, brah, no problem-- no girly hands for me!"
After almost 30 years in the automotive business I have seen it all. I also feel your pain. Simple things were the ones that always got me
