By Marc J. Elzenbeck
Motor oil contains hydrocarbons, detergents, viscosity enhancing agents, and after being used in an engine, fine metal particles. It is not recommended for skin care. But if it sprays you in the face, it imparts a nice supple feel for a week or so.
Running an errand in Seattle, my route took me past 12th & Jackson. The uphill angle on Jackson is a lot steeper than it looks on King5 News. When I pulled up to wait at a stoplight, my view of the rumpus was obscured by a sudden puff of black smoke. Then, clouds of it were coming from the front of our Subaru Forester–smoke from an engine bay is never good. Expecting the worst, things like “valve cover gasket, catastrophic failure,” “head gasket, $5000 fix,” and “blocked oil pressure relief valve” rose in my head like zombies from open graves.
I pulled over, parked near a group of loitering cops and raised the hood to look for the source. Subarus have long held a reputation for both blowing gaskets and mysteriously burning or losing oil. Their “Boxer” engine has the pistons horizontally opposed, so rather than going up-down like a sensible inline four cylinder, they go side-side in pairs. This has advantages like a lower center of gravity, natural balance, and good power. In the past decade-plus, Subaru has addressed its former bugaboos and has now climbed atop the reliability ratings, but the Boxer design inherently places higher stress on valve trains and gaskets as motor oil tries to fly out the sides. As was happening right in front of me.
Under the hood, I couldn’t see any obvious source for gushers, but oil was hitting the exhaust pipe flange fast enough to not burn off, and a drizzle was dripping onto the street. At a rate of about a gallon per hour. Pretty grim, and mechanics were closed. Time to cut the tour short and run to the nearest source of quarts, the Gul station on 6th Ave South.
After about 5 quarts of refills, I limped into the home driveway. Driving the Forester up on ramps, gathering tools and, steeling myself against the inevitable, I slid underneath the car and took off the plastic skirt that protects against light road debris. There weren’t any telltale rivulets or trails from the head or valve cover areas, but it was a mess. Most of the blackish, first-leaked oil was thickest around the front of the engine bay near the filter (a round screw-on can with holes and paper baffles inside it). Which I had never seen happen before.
In cities, it can be convenient to drop off at a Jiffy Lube, or buy at a dealership that includes pre-paid changes. Disposing of one’s own used oil is a chore. Motoring life started for me at a time when kids were expected to change their own oil as needed. Because getting maintenance for vehicles from the few service providers on-Island can be competitive and unpredictable, I now usually do it myself. Having made not much over 40 oil and filter changes, maybe I was the problem. Did I not tighten the filter enough?
Because it was too slippery to check for hand-tightness, I put the tightener strap on and gave a mild tug. Maybe an eighth of a turn. I then asked my kid to start the car, and in the flashlight I could see some oil coming out from the filter’s right-side rim. Aha! So it was too loose. I tightened more with the strap, a half turn or so, and asked him to start up again.
On Subarus, oil pressure at idle is fairly high, at 40+ psi (pounds per square inch), about twice as strong as water comes out of a garden hose. I had compressed the filter to the perfect angle to spray me in the face with a blast of 180° oil. As they say in the trade, “Welp: there’s your problem.” It was definitely not too loose anymore. To get the filter off, I had to use the old trick of hammering a screwdriver of just the right size on through to make an unscrewing handle. Which, given the typical placement of filters in narrow spots, took another half-hour of awkward reaching and cursing.
I’ve heard of oil filters getting dirty, but not failing. Except in the fabled Double Gasket scenario, which is where you take a filter off and don’t notice that its rubber ring has stayed stuck onto its mounting point; you put the new filter on top and a blow-out ensues. Thankfully, I hadn’t made that mistake, and a replacement immediately straightened it out.
On inspecting the FRAM Orange filter, there was a small irregularity in the rubber ring. Honestly it didn’t seem like much. Maybe a steady routine of 100 potholes a day doesn’t help? I’m not sure whether the fault was operator error, manufacturing defect, or pressure anomaly. What I’m sure of is there are worse things for your skin than hot Mobil 1 5w-20 Advanced Synthetic motor oil.
