Oil change from hell!

[bonanzadave]

dropping things into the drain pan

Kind of an airplane thing....

Find an old window screen to put over your pan. If any thing comes out with the oil that shouldnt you can see it and you wont drop anything in the pan. We cut oil filters open for inspection.

[hillntx]

I had a similar joyful experience changing the oil on my ST. To hit the high points: the replacement crush washer purchased from the dealer was the wrong size, the nylon plastic filter wrench provided by the PO was a piece of junk and prefered to fall apart than be turned by my ratchet, the strap wrench purchased at the last minute didn't have sufficient clearance to turn the filter which I should have known after jambing a screwdriver through the filter and not having enough clearance to turn it, and finally after getting the filter loose it was blocked by the center stand when trying to removing it. So my 20 minute first time for the bike oil change became a 2 hour ordeal. Live and learn...

[Steve]

... AFA Fram, I won't use them on anything, they are well known for having issues. ...

You know, I hear that on just about any forum I have ever visited. If they are such a bad product, how do they remain in business?

I used to use them exclusively on my 4-wheeled vehicles and never had any problems. At least, there were no problems that I noticed. If there was a problem, it was minor enough that it never caused any problems.

.

[koolaid_kid]

You know, I hear that on just about any forum I have ever visited. If they are such a bad product, how do they remain in business?

I used to use them exclusively on my 4-wheeled vehicles and never had any problems. At least, there were no problems that I noticed. If there was a problem, it was minor enough that it never caused any problems.

.

Because they are the cheapest. Not a put down to you or anyone who uses them, but they are. They are a high-volume, low price filter.
Thier biggest problem that I have seen reported is that they use a cardboard plug at the end of the filter. Apparently it is easily blown out, leaving you with unfiltered oil.
There is a site that tested lots'o'brands (the oil guy?) where he evaluates them, and it tested real near the bottom. He also disected the filters and found the quantity of filter material (it is folded around, but is one piece) to be very low and found the cardboard plug.

[TitanNeil]

I was fixin' up a GS500 this week (its sold) and was changinf oil, filter, plugs, etc. Same thing, start bike and blub blub blub, oil all over the floor. O-ring wasn't seated correctly.
When doing ANYTHING on a bike I keep a little magnet-on-a-stick with me. I can pick nuts and washers out of the drain pan (I drop them in every time) and nuts/washers/screws from inaccessible places on the bike itself when they inevitably fall there.

[Dave_17954]

I use Fram on my suzi and have never had any problems. I stretch the orings a bit and dab some grease on them to hold them on the cover and have never had a leak.......give me my rotella 15w40 and ch 6000 anytime

[duaneage]

Heat the o ring up , I put mine on the hood of the car in the sun, and that makes it pliable enough to fit properly in the cover.

If you are lucky and quick you can sometimes reuse the o ring anyway.


And would not use anything from FRAM. Period.

[raistian77]

To make life easier buy the dealer O'rings. they are packaged flat .

After spending a day fighting the fram filter/o'ring setup I bought 20 filters and rings from my stealership.

[Mysuzyq]

Probably not necessary to use a new o-ring every time. I change mine around every 3 years...never had one fail. Not trying to be cheap....after a while, they stay put in the filter cover groove, making the job much easier. This is with the OEM rings, and Wix too....some rings included with other filters appear to have a slightly smaller diameter.