The Persuader

Started to do an oil change on my rx8 this afternoon. Half way in I couldn't get the filter to budge. Who knew that you could round off a filter as if it were a bolt. The filter's on top of the engine between the intake and the firewall with no room to work. I tried the skewer it with a screwdriver method, which failed spectacularly and made a huge mess. I couldn't fit a universal filter wrench around it. I tried hammering the filter wrench on with sand paper in between hoping it would grip. About an hour of swearing later I had resigned myself to pulling the intake off so I'd have some room to work when I had an epiphany, I call it "The Persuader".

A few minutes with the drill and a couple of drywall screws later I was filter free. Here's a zoomed out view so can see how cocked-up the filter placement is on this car.

And the post-op:

This ranks high on my personal redneck solutions list.

great trick

i've seen some asinine filter locations, but that's like they were 'where's waldo' fans

You'll probably hit me if I show you a pic of the filter location on my RX7...

Nice job on the removal. This definitely looks like one of those cars where it's worth buying the K&N filter for the nut welded on top.

What about a remote filter. Any adapter or way to fab one up? I $mell a market for thi$.

Did you stay outside the filter medium? I hope no metal shavings got into the oil pasages.

man that looks like a pain in the ass.

I'd be looking into a remote unit myself.

Neat trick! That's a hellish filter location.

I think i'm missing something here. My brain is fried and for the life of me i can't figure out the purpose of the screws....

Hmmm... calls patent office

1)Design "filter wrench of doom" 2)Patent it 3)???? 4) PROFIT!

93celicaGT2 wrote: I think i'm missing something here. My brain is fried and for the life of me i can't figure out the purpose of the screws....

the filter would spin in the wrench, so the srews held it in place.

And that is on E36 M3ty place for a filter

P71 wrote: You'll probably hit me if I show you a pic of the filter location on my RX7...

Looks like the FB designers did not design the RX8. The FB oil filter location is one of the best I've ever seen.

porksboy wrote: What about a remote filter. Any adapter or way to fab one up? I $mell a market for thi$. Did you stay outside the filter medium? I hope no metal shavings got into the oil pasages.

I hope so. I'll find out soon enough.

grm is so educational