Engine Oil Leak

[BobnLesley]

Our engine (Volvo MD6A) suffers from a persistent leak at the interface between the oil filter (disposable canister type) and engine. We've tried over and under-tightening them to no avail. Some makes of filter (Crossland) have managed to provide a better seal than others, but there's is always some degree of leak and it appears to be getting worse. Any suggetions?

 

[stevebirch2002]

Hi Bob. Have you got the original filter with the threaded finger coming out of the filter or do you have the adaptor that enables you to use standard filters?

 

[BobnLesley]

It uses 'standard' Oil Filters, the threaded fixing stub is on the side of the engine block.

 

[orizaba]

is the threaded stub fixed,some of them unscrew and if not screwed back tightmay cause a problem,had it occur on a few lorries.the only other thing i can think is that the housing that the filter goes up to is distorted,maybe the crossland filter had a slightly softer rubber and so took up the slack
maybe its been twisted in the past,
i assume you smear the rubber on the filter with oil or grease before fitting .
is it possible that it has an old rubber left in the housing and you are tightning to that instead of the ally/steel face

 

[stevebirch2002]

In that case an adaptor has been fitted. This has a separate O RIng that may have perished. The adaptor is removed with a large Allen Key, cant remember the size.
Cheers

 

[pbeard]

I once had a similar leak and found that previously someone had been heavyhanded with some tooling and had badly scratched the mating surface on the filter housing. It took a while with emery to smooth the indentation out but then the seal took up the surface nicely and it leaked no more! You may need a torch and mirror to have a good look.

 

[sailorman]

do you smeer lube oil onto the rubber seal prior to fitting

 

[BobnLesley]

I always smear the rubber seal with some clean engine oil before tightening the filter.