How to replace an oil filter

When to replace an oil filter

The oil filter is a service item and is replaced with every engine oil change, unless your vehicle manufacturer's service schedule says otherwise. The schedule says when the oil change is due: after a distance or a time, whichever comes first, or when the vehicle's service indicator asks for it. Schedules differ widely between vehicle manufacturers, engines and the oil they require, and many call for earlier changes under severe use, such as mostly short trips, towing or dusty conditions, so the schedule for your vehicle decides.

A filter that is left in too long fills with dirt. Most oil circuits have a bypass valve, in the filter or in the engine, that then lets oil pass around the filter medium, so that the engine is still lubricated, but with unfiltered oil. An old filter also keeps some used oil and the dirt it has collected and has less capacity left to hold more, which is why it is not left in at an oil change.

Whatever the schedule says, the filter has to be dealt with at once when one of these is found:

• Oil leaks at the filter, at the housing cap or at its seals
• A spin-on filter is dented, corroded through or otherwise damaged
• A housing cap is cracked or its sealing ring is damaged
• The filter fitted is not one listed for the engine

Do not drive with an oil leak at the filter or with the oil pressure warning showing: an engine that loses its oil or its oil pressure can be destroyed quickly. A leak at the filter can also come from a part beside it, such as the seal of the filter housing or of an oil cooler, so a new filter does not always cure it.

Before you start

Hot engine oil scalds, and the sump, the filter and the exhaust stay hot long after the engine has stopped. Never open the drain plug or the filter on an engine at operating temperature. Never go under a vehicle that is held up by a jack alone.

• Changing the filter means draining the engine oil and filling new oil. If you are not prepared to do the whole oil change, including the safe raising of the vehicle and the disposal of the used oil, leave the job to a workshop.
• Obtain the vehicle manufacturer's procedure before you start: where the drain plug and the filter are and how they are reached, the order in which they are opened, the oil the engine requires, its specification or approval and its quantity with a filter change, and the tightening specifications for the drain plug, the filter or its cap and the parts removed for access.
• Have everything ready before you open anything: the new filter with its seals, enough new engine oil of the specification the vehicle manufacturer requires, and a new sealing ring for the drain plug or a new drain plug, where the manufacturer requires one to be replaced. The vehicle cannot be driven to fetch a missing part once the oil is out.
• Find out which kind of filter your engine has and where it is. A spin-on filter is usually reached from below or from the side of the engine. A filter insert sits in a housing with a screwed cap, which is on top of the engine on some engines and underneath on others. On some vehicles an engine cover, an undertray or other parts are in the way.
• Find out how the oil is taken out of your engine. This guide describes draining it through the drain plug in the sump. Some vehicle manufacturers provide for the oil to be drawn out by suction through the dipstick tube or a service tube instead; that needs extraction equipment and the manufacturer's procedure for it, and this guide does not cover it.
• Park the vehicle on firm, level ground with the parking brake applied. Switch off the ignition and keep the key or remote away from the vehicle, so that the engine cannot be started. Follow your vehicle manufacturer's instructions for service work on engines that start automatically and on hybrid vehicles, and disconnect the battery if those instructions call for it. On a hybrid vehicle, do not touch the orange high-voltage cables or the components they connect.
• Warm oil drains more completely than cold oil, and hot oil scalds. Where the vehicle manufacturer's procedure calls for a warm engine, let an engine that has been driven cool until the sump, the filter and the parts around them can be worked on without burns. An electric cooling fan can start by itself even with the ignition off: keep hands and tools clear of it.
• If the vehicle has to be raised, raise it only at the lifting points the vehicle manufacturer gives, on firm, level ground, and support it on axle stands or drive it onto ramps made for its weight; chock the wheels that stay on the ground. Check that it stands securely before you go under it. Use the position of the vehicle that the manufacturer's procedure gives for draining. The oil level can be read correctly only with the vehicle standing level, so lower it onto level ground before you check the level.
• Wear oil-resistant gloves and eye protection. Used engine oil is harmful on prolonged or repeated skin contact: wash oil off the skin with soap and water, and do not keep oily cloths in your pockets.
• Protect the ground under the engine and wipe up spilled oil at once: it makes the floor slippery, it pollutes soil and water, and oil on a hot exhaust smokes and can catch fire.
• Whenever the engine has to run during or after this job, first make sure that the vehicle stands in the open air and cannot move, with the parking brake applied and the transmission in neutral or in park, and that hands, clothing, tools and cloths are clear of moving and hot parts. Never run an engine in a garage or another closed space: exhaust fumes are poisonous.

Choose the right filter

Oil filters differ in their design, their dimensions, their thread or the way they sit in the housing, their seals and the valves they contain. A filter that screws on or drops in is not therefore the right one: a wrong seal diameter leaks, and a filter without the valve the engine's oil circuit expects can leave the engine short of oil pressure or of filtered oil. Fit only a filter listed for your engine.

Select your vehicle with the selector on this page to see the part numbers listed for its engine. Where its supplier states them, each part number is shown with specifications such as the filter type, the height and the diameters, the thread and the diameter of the sealing ring. The filter types that suppliers state for the oil filters in the catalogue include the spin-on filter, which some suppliers call a screw filter, and the filter insert.

• For some part numbers the supplier states that the filter comes with a gasket or seal, or with several. Check what is in the box against the seals your filter housing and its cap have, and obtain separately any seal the vehicle manufacturer requires to be replaced that is not included.
• For some part numbers the supplier states a valve: an overflow valve, which is another name for a bypass valve, or one or two anti-return valves, which keep oil from running out of the filter while the engine is stopped. These belong to the filter's design for the engine: do not choose between versions by them yourself, but take the version listed for your vehicle.
• For some part numbers the supplier states that the part comes with an oil drain plug or with the oil filter housing, or that it is for a conversion kit. Check what the part includes and what it is meant for before you buy. The steps below cover changing the filter in the arrangement the engine has: replacing a filter housing or fitting a conversion kit needs its own fitting instructions and the vehicle manufacturer's procedure.
• For some part numbers the supplier states a tightening torque, and for some the article number of the special tool it recommends for the filter or the cap. Both are shown beside the part number where they are stated. The vehicle manufacturer's tightening instructions for your engine take precedence; if a value marked on the housing cap or stated with the filter differs from them, clear that up with the vehicle manufacturer or the supplier before you fit the part.
• Where more than one filter is listed for an engine, they can be equivalent parts from different suppliers or parts intended for different versions of the vehicle. Where a supplier states conditions for a part number, such as a production period, an engine number range or an equipment code, they say which vehicles it is for. If what is stated does not settle it, ask the supplier or the vehicle manufacturer before you buy.

All oil filter OE numbers in the catalogue

Drain the engine oil

1. Before you remove anything, switch off the ignition, make sure that the engine cannot be started, as described under Before you start, and let a hot engine cool until the sump, the filter and the exhaust can be worked near without burns. Where the bonnet has to be open, make sure that its stay or struts hold it securely before you work under it.
2. Clean around the oil filler cap and open it, as far as the vehicle manufacturer's procedure provides for that, so that air can enter while the oil drains. Keep dirt out of the opening, and do not leave anything lying on or in it.
3. Follow the order the vehicle manufacturer's procedure gives for the filter and the drain plug. On many engines with the filter housing on top, the cap is loosened first, so that the oil standing in the housing can run down into the sump before the oil is drained. Where your procedure requires that, first clean around the cap and lay cloths to catch oil and to protect the parts below it, as described under Remove the old filter, and then loosen the cap as the manufacturer describes; the filter itself is changed as described in that section.
4. If the drain plug or the filter is reached from below, raise and support the vehicle as described under Before you start, and check that it stands securely. Remove the undertray, or open its service flap if it has one, as the vehicle manufacturer describes, and keep its fixings together.
5. Identify the engine's oil drain plug with certainty before you loosen anything. Some engines have more than one drain point for the engine oil, such as a second section of the sump or a separate oil reservoir: identify every one the vehicle manufacturer's procedure names, and drain and close each as that procedure describes. A transmission, a transfer case and other units have drain plugs of their own nearby on many vehicles, and draining the wrong one can destroy that unit if it goes unnoticed. If you are not sure which plug is the engine's, or cannot find or reach a drain point the procedure names, stop and consult the vehicle manufacturer's information.
6. Wipe the area around the drain plug clean. Place the drain pan under it, allowing for the oil leaving sideways in a jet at first and falling straight down as the flow weakens. The pan must hold more than the engine's whole oil quantity.
7. Loosen the drain plug with a tool that fits it exactly, in the way its design requires: most plugs are unscrewed, and some plastic plugs are released by a turn and a catch, as the vehicle manufacturer describes. Take it out by hand over the pan, keeping your arm out of the path of the oil, and let the oil drain until it only drips.
8. While the oil drains, look at it. Metal particles that can be seen, a milky or creamy appearance, which can mean coolant in the oil, or a strong smell of fuel are signs of a fault that a filter and oil change does not cure: have the engine checked by a workshop before it is driven further.
9. Clean the drain plug and its seat in the sump. Fit a new sealing ring, or a new plug, where the vehicle manufacturer requires it; where reuse is allowed, reuse a sealing ring or a plug only if it is undamaged. Check that the old sealing ring is not still stuck to the sump. Screw the plug in by hand first, so that it cannot cross-thread, and tighten it to the vehicle manufacturer's tightening specification, or fasten a plastic plug in the way the manufacturer describes. Many sumps are of aluminium or plastic: overtightening can strip the thread or crack the sump.
10. If the filter is still to be changed from below, the drain plug can stay out, with the pan under it, until the filter is done, where the vehicle manufacturer's order of work allows that. Whichever order you work in, make sure before any oil is filled that the drain plug is fitted and tightened.

If the drain plug's thread is damaged, the plug turns without tightening or the sump is cracked, do not fill oil and do not start the engine. Have the sump repaired first.

Remove the old filter

1. Remove the engine cover and anything else that blocks access to the filter, as the vehicle manufacturer describes. If access would mean opening the cooling system, the fuel system or the air conditioning circuit, or disconnecting a component of a hybrid's high-voltage system, that work has its own procedures and precautions: leave it to a workshop.
2. Wipe loose dirt off the filter or the housing cap and from around it, so that nothing falls into the opening. Place the drain pan under the filter, or, where the filter is on top or on the side of the engine, lay cloths under and around it. Oil can run out of the filter and the housing when they are opened; keep it off belts, hoses, wiring, the alternator and the exhaust, cover those you cannot keep it off as far as you can reach them, and count the cloths you lay.
3. A spin-on filter: loosen it with an oil filter wrench that fits it, turning in the direction that unscrews it, and unscrew it by hand over the pan. It is full of oil: keep its open end upwards as soon as it is free, then empty it into the pan. Do not drive a screwdriver or anything else through a filter to turn it: the canister tears and spills its oil, and it can leave the filter stuck with no way to grip it. Never strike or lever against the engine's filter mounting. A filter that no fitting wrench will move is a job for a workshop.
4. A spin-on filter: check at once that its sealing ring has come away with it. If the old ring is still stuck to the engine's sealing surface, take it off. A new filter fitted on top of an old ring does not seal and can lose the engine's oil within moments of starting.
5. A spin-on filter: check that the threaded connector on which the filter screws has stayed in the engine and is tight and undamaged. If it has come out with the filter or is loose, it has to be refitted as the vehicle manufacturer specifies before a filter goes on.
6. A filter insert: where the housing has a drain plug or a drain valve of its own, open it first as the vehicle manufacturer describes, with the tool the manufacturer names where it needs one, and let the housing drain into the pan. Then loosen the cap with a tool that fits its drive exactly, such as a cap-type oil filter wrench or a socket of the right size. Caps are often plastic: a tool that fits loosely, pliers or a strap around the cap can round it off or crack it.
7. A filter insert: where the vehicle manufacturer's procedure provides for it, pause when the cap is partly unscrewed, so that the oil in the housing can drain away. Then unscrew the cap fully and lift it away slowly, holding a cloth or the pan under it: the cap and the insert drip. Where the insert is clipped into the cap, it comes out with the cap; where it stands in the housing, take the cap off first and then lift the insert out as the vehicle manufacturer describes.
8. A filter insert: note how the insert sits before you separate anything: whether it is clipped into the cap or stands in the housing, which end is towards the cap, and where each sealing ring sits on the cap, on its centre stem or on the drain plug. Then take the insert off or out the way its mounting requires, without bending the cap's centre stem or the tube in the housing.
9. A filter insert: check that the old insert has come out whole, with both of its end pieces and with any sealing ring it carries. If it is collapsed or torn, or a piece of it or of a sealing ring is missing, look into the housing with a lamp and take every piece out. If a piece may have left the housing into the oil passages, or you cannot account for it, do not start the engine, and have a workshop deal with it.
10. Either design: let the oil drip out of the filter mounting or the housing into the pan. If the opening has to stay open while you prepare the new filter, cover it with a clean, lint-free cloth laid over it, never pushed into it, and take that cloth away before the new filter is fitted.

Fit the new filter

1. Check that the new filter is one listed for your engine. Then compare it with the old one. For a spin-on filter: the diameter and height of the canister, the thread, and the diameter and position of the sealing ring. For a filter insert: the height, the outer and inner diameters, the form of both end pieces and the sealing rings supplied. Where they differ, do not fit the filter until its supplier or the vehicle manufacturer confirms that it is the right part. The filter that was fitted may itself have been the wrong one.
2. Check that the new filter is clean and undamaged, that the sealing ring of a spin-on filter is complete and seated in its groove, and that the filter medium and the end pieces of an insert are intact. Do not fit a filter that has been dropped and dented, or one with dirt inside. Take any protective film or cap off its openings, and leave nothing from the packaging in or on it.
3. Wipe the sealing surface on the engine, or the inside of the housing and the cap, with a clean, lint-free cloth. The surface on which a seal rests must be clean, dry of old deposits and undamaged, with no remains of an old sealing ring. Do not let dirt or lint fall into the oil passages, and use no solvents, sealants or sprays unless the vehicle manufacturer's procedure expressly provides for them.
4. A spin-on filter: prepare its sealing ring as the instructions on the filter or its packaging and the vehicle manufacturer's procedure say. Many call for a thin film of clean new engine oil on the ring, so that it does not grip and twist as the filter is tightened; a few call for it to be fitted as supplied. Fill the filter with new oil before fitting only if the vehicle manufacturer's procedure calls for it, and then only with clean oil of the required specification.
5. A spin-on filter: screw it on by hand, square to the thread, so that it cannot cross-thread; it must turn easily until the sealing ring touches the engine's sealing surface. Then tighten it exactly as the instructions on the filter or its packaging describe, or to the vehicle manufacturer's tightening specification where it gives one for your engine. Use the oil filter wrench for tightening only where those instructions provide for it. A filter that is too loose leaks and can work off; one that is too tight can damage its sealing ring or its thread and is hard to remove at the next change.
6. A filter insert: replace every sealing ring of the cap, of its centre stem and of the housing's drain plug for which the vehicle manufacturer requires replacement or the filter's maker supplies a new one. Ease each old ring off with your fingers or a blunt plastic tool, never with a blade or a sharp point that can score the groove. Clean the grooves, and fit each new ring in the position that the instructions with the filter and the vehicle manufacturer's procedure give for it: caps often have several grooves and a thread beside them, and a ring in the wrong groove or on the thread leaks. Where the old ring sat is a guide only, since it may itself have been fitted wrongly. Compare each new ring with the one it replaces, check that none is twisted, and wet the rings with clean new engine oil where the instructions with the filter or the vehicle manufacturer's procedure call for it.
7. A filter insert: fit the insert the way the old one sat, following any mark for the top or the fitting direction on the insert and the instructions that come with it. If the old insert may have been fitted wrongly, go by the marks and the instructions, not by the old insert. An insert that clips into the cap must engage in it fully; one that stands in the housing must sit fully down on its seat or its tube. Check that the tube or stem that passes through the insert, where the design has one, is present and undamaged.
8. A filter insert: take away any cloth laid over the housing and make sure that nothing else is in it. Where the insert is clipped into the cap, guide the cap with the insert straight into the housing; where the insert stands in the housing, seat it there first and then fit the cap over it. Screw the cap in by hand, so that it cannot cross-thread and no sealing ring is pinched or pushed out of its groove. If it binds, unscrew it and look for the cause; do not force it with the tool. Tighten the cap as the vehicle manufacturer specifies for your engine, to the stop where the manufacturer describes one; a value is often marked on the cap as well, and if the two differ, clear that up with the vehicle manufacturer or the supplier before you tighten it. Overtightening can crack a plastic cap or the housing. Where the housing has a drain plug or valve of its own, close it as the vehicle manufacturer describes, with a new sealing ring where one is required.
9. Either design: wipe all oil off the filter, the housing, the engine and the parts below them, so that a fresh leak can be seen afterwards and no oil is left on the exhaust. Look at the belts, hoses, wiring and electrical components that oil has reached, and clean them in the way the vehicle manufacturer allows. If oil has reached a timing belt or its cover, or another part that you cannot be sure is still fit for use, do not start the engine until that part has been inspected, and replaced where the vehicle manufacturer requires it. Remove every cloth and cover you laid, and account for each one.

A filter insert fitted without its sealing rings, with a ring in the wrong groove or with a cracked cap, and a spin-on filter fitted over an old sealing ring, can lose the engine's oil under pressure while it runs. Check the seals once more before you fill the oil.

Fill the oil and check

1. Make sure that the drain plug is fitted and tightened, that the filter or its cap is fitted and tightened, and that any drain plug or valve of the filter housing is closed. Take the drain pan, the tools and the cloths out from under the vehicle.
2. Fill new engine oil through the filler opening with a clean funnel. Use only oil of the specification or approval the vehicle manufacturer requires for your engine: the wrong oil can damage the engine and, where the vehicle has them, exhaust aftertreatment components such as a particulate filter. Fill it in the way and in the quantity the vehicle manufacturer's procedure gives for an oil change with filter. Refit the filler cap, and wipe up spilled oil. The engine must hold the filling its manufacturer requires before it is started. Where the manufacturer provides for a check with the dipstick before the first start, make it with the vehicle in the position and under the conditions the manufacturer gives, and confirm that the level is within the range given for that check. Otherwise follow the vehicle manufacturer's procedure for the first filling and for checking it.
3. Check before the first start that nothing drips at the drain plug or the filter. If the vehicle is raised, check from beside it or under it only while the engine is stopped and the vehicle stands securely.
4. Before the first start, refit every part that the engine needs in order to run safely, such as intake parts removed for access, as the vehicle manufacturer describes, and reconnect the battery as the manufacturer describes if you disconnected it. Check that every tool, cloth and cover is accounted for and clear of the engine. Follow any procedure the vehicle manufacturer gives for the first start after an oil and filter change. Make sure that the vehicle stands in the open air and cannot move, with the parking brake applied and the transmission in neutral or in park, that nobody is under it and that nothing is near the moving parts. Start the engine and let it idle without revving it. The oil pressure warning must go out shortly after the start, once the new filter has filled. If it stays on or comes on again, switch off at once. Do not restart the engine until the cause has been found and put right, the oil filled has been checked, and any procedure the vehicle manufacturer requires for filling the oil circuit has been carried out. If you cannot establish that it is safe to restart, have the vehicle taken to a workshop without running the engine.
5. With the engine idling, look at the filter and the drain plug for leaks from a safe position beside the vehicle, with a lamp, as far as they can be seen from there; keep hands, clothing and cloths clear of moving and hot parts, and do not go under a vehicle whose engine is running. If oil escapes, switch off at once.
6. Switch off the engine and make sure that it cannot be started. Check the filter, its cap and the drain plug for leaks again, now also from below where that is needed and the vehicle stands securely, keeping clear of hot parts. If there is a leak, find its cause: do not simply tighten a filter, a cap or a plug further than its specification allows. A leak at a seal usually means a missing, doubled, twisted or misplaced sealing ring, and the part has to come off again. Keep the engine stopped until the leak is put right: let hot parts cool, drain the oil first where opening the part would let it run out, replace damaged parts and the seals the vehicle manufacturer requires, fill the oil to the correct level again and repeat the leak checks.
7. Lower the vehicle onto level ground if it was raised. Check the oil level in the way the handbook describes, with the dipstick or with the vehicle's electronic level display, after the waiting time and under the conditions the handbook gives. Add oil in small amounts and check again each time, until the level is within the permitted range and not above its upper mark.
8. Do not overfill. Too much oil can damage the engine and exhaust aftertreatment components, and on some engines it can be drawn into the intake. If the level is above the permitted range, do not start the engine or let it run any longer: have the excess taken out, and check the level again in the way the handbook describes before the engine runs again.
9. Refit the undertray, the engine cover and everything else that is still off as the vehicle manufacturer describes, tightened to the manufacturer's values. If the undertray can be refitted only from below, raise and support the vehicle again as described under Before you start, and return it to level ground afterwards. Check that no tool, cloth or container is left in the engine bay or under the vehicle.
10. Where the vehicle has a service indicator that has to be reset after the oil change, reset it as the handbook or the vehicle manufacturer describes. Record the oil and filter change, with the oil used, in the service record.
11. Drive the vehicle only once the oil level is within the permitted range, the checks have found no leak, the oil pressure warning has gone out and stays out, and everything removed has been refitted. After the first short drive, let the engine cool, check the filter and the drain plug for leaks once more and check the oil level again in the way the handbook describes.
12. Pour the used oil into a sealable container, without mixing it with any other fluid, and let the old filter drain into the pan before you put it into a bag or a container. Used oil and used oil filters are hazardous waste: hand them in at a collection point or wherever your local rules provide, and never pour oil into a drain, onto the ground or into household waste.

Mistakes to avoid

• Going under a vehicle that is not securely supported
• Opening the drain plug or the filter on a hot engine
• Draining the transmission or another unit instead of the engine
• Leaving the old sealing ring of a spin-on filter on the engine and fitting the new filter over it
• Fitting a sealing ring of a housing cap in the wrong groove, or leaving an old ring in place where a new one is required
• Overtightening the drain plug, the filter or a plastic housing cap
• Reusing a drain plug or a sealing ring that the vehicle manufacturer requires to be replaced
• Starting the engine before the oil has been filled
• Filling oil of the wrong specification, or more than the permitted level
• Checking the oil level with the vehicle not standing level
• Fitting a filter that is not listed for the engine because it screws on or drops in
• Leaving a cloth in the filter housing or on the engine
• Pouring used oil into a drain or onto the ground