Thread: Oil Filter Exploded Off Car

So it was exactly a week after I bought my car, a 2002 Grand Prix SE and I was driving home from work, the car was still cold as I had only driven a block. Wanting to feel the take off speed I floored it from the light. My last car was a Firebird and peak torque was around 3500 if I remember correctly and it rose slower. Not being used to the speed at which the rpm climbed, by the time I checked it it was a 5500 so I eased off. At what I think was the second gear change, I felt and heard a loud explosion that felt like it came from the rear of the car. Looking in my rearview mirror, I saw was seemed like a plastic bag blowing away. At the light I noticed my oil light came on and my car was smoking. Luckily, my house was less then a block away and by the time I got home I had my girlfriend drive me back out when I saw the leaking oil and found the filter. After a new filter and oil, the car is driving fine now, but there are some questions that I have. As I was driving some oil was blown on my exhaust pipe and possibly the cat. I did my best to wipe all of it off, is there damage? And how out of line was I with pushing my car's rev's that high, I mean my Firebird would easily go that high with no problems and it had 135000, my Grand Prix has 87000. Does anyone know what could have caused this? An improperly tightened oil filter? And I accept all flak that I will get from you guys

its never good to rev an engine that high when its cold. and you cause no damage to the exhaust by getting oil on it. more than likely it was caused by the filter not being tight. what kinda filter was it?

It was a Pentius filter, I have never heard of the brand, but I replaced it with a Fram cause they were out of Mobile and Bosch. I was worried that my engine might have been damaged but it seems to run fine except for this noise it makes right on startup that sounds like a little horse neighing, I know it sounds weird but its the best way to describe it.

even if you were a block away I would not have kept driving. You may have been fine if you were using a synth. oil but IMO its not worth the risk I would have shut it down right then a there and pushed it home. Just to be on the safe side for any possible shaving or something I would change the oil again soon.

I uually only hear of racers blowing up oil filters. Takes a lot of pressure to do though. Was it just the filter case or the whole filter that came off?

It was just the filter that came off, the rubber seal or gasket thing on the filter wasn't damaged at all, and the filter just had a couple dings and dents from the asphalt. If I was a cheap arse i'm sure I could have screwed it back on, as it just exploded off, not exploded itself. I just about shat my pants when it happened though, I was scared that the threads to where the oil filter screws into had been stripped. So I guess this hasn't happened to anyone else? Thanks for your replies guys.

this happen to me on my monte carlo 2004 3.4 i was in a rush and took it to castrol gtx to get a oil change b4 i moved well the idiots put the wrong filter on it came off after a 1hr of drivin noticed smoke in my rear mirror comin out from under my car and a loud tickin (im furrious) pulled over and notice oil leaking everywere from front to back called castrol gtx they were closed wtf even more furious now. called a freind to come get me so i retrace my route i went found oil filter went to my work (took a week vacation in the middle of movin thats why i didnt do it myself) cross reffrenced it wrong filter put new filter on and new oil ran fine no tick notta. they paid my shop 2900 for a new motor i kept the money never put a motor in the car.its still runin around i gave it to my brother 2yrs ago

This isnt as rare as people think it happens all the time. First look at where you live and what type of oil you are running in your car if you live in hot weather areas and run a 10w-30 your asking for trouble. Where im going with this is that if your running the wrong type of oil you will build to much pressure and blow it off. Also you might want to get a testing kit you can get it at autozone or other auto stores. You take a sample and you have to send it out. This will tell you everything about your oil like metal deposits and other things. This will help because normally the filter blows off like that when they clog so maybe you had some deposits in the filter that clogged it and it blew up.

hot weather ares and 10w30 oil,looking for trouble,first i ever heard of that,can you go into more detail,i have been running 10w30 for yrs in my 01 se which has 102,000 on it

The weather wasn't hot, about 75, and it had only been running for 1 minute. At the light I floored it and around 5500-6000 I let off the gas and that's when it came off. My car has been running fine now, I've done 2 oil changes since, running 5w-30, and I think the reason was that it was improperly tightened. It just sucks that it happened to me so soon after buying it, I was thinking that I was already going to have problems. Just goes to show you that you can't trust anyone's work on your car but your own.

When I say hot weather I'm talking about down south. Like arizona. How oil is rated The W stands for winter and how well that oil will flow at a certain temp in winter. So if your running a 10w-30 the W stands for winter and how well that oil will flow at a certain temp in winter. The 30 is for summer months. So if you live in an area that is very how you shouldnt run a oil that has a good winter rating and run something that has a little hight summer rating so it flows better in the motor. So if you do run that type of oil then it could be building to much pressure or it could start to sludge due to it being to hot.

Originally Posted by hostilehouse

The weather wasn't hot, about 75, and it had only been running for 1 minute. At the light I floored it and around 5500-6000 I let off the gas and that's when it came off. My car has been running fine now, I've done 2 oil changes since, running 5w-30, and I think the reason was that it was improperly tightened. It just sucks that it happened to me so soon after buying it, I was thinking that I was already going to have problems. Just goes to show you that you can't trust anyone's work on your car but your own.

So with that type of weather a 10w or a 5w mix is fine. But you do say that that the car was only running for about a minute. That is probly what happened that they oil wasent up to operating type and that there was so much pressure that it went to the weakest link and it just went. This is just was I'm thinking it could be a lot of reasons. But it sounds like you got it fixed so good for you.

Too much pressure from hot oil? Running 5 weight oil in hot climates? If you don't know what you're talking about, you shouldn't be giving other people advice.

Originally Posted by kfish

its never good to rev an engine that high when its cold.

This. Mine never goes above 2500 rpm until its at or almost at full operating temp