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Haste makes Waste - Oil Filter Edition

JKevin

Well Known Member
Looking for some advice...

I was changing my oil filter last night and got careless cutting the safety wire to the oil filter. I managed to tear the tab on the accessory case that has the hole for the safety wire. So there is no hole for safety wiring the oil filter in place now.

As a best I could do at the time, I ran the safety wire around the boss for the oil temp sender. It's secure, just not the way Lycoming planned it.

So as I see it my options going forward are:
-continue to wire around the base of the boss for the oil temp sender
-JB weld a small piece of tubing where the old safety wire hole was
-remove accessory case and repair via weld+drill, or replace acc case (I REALLY don't want to do this)
-don't use safety wire - has anyone ever REALLY had an oil filter fall off? Never had one fall off my car.
-something else I haven't thought of?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

FWIW O-360 on RV-6
 
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Safety wire

That is pretty common issue, just keep running the wire around the oil temp sensor.
 
Ah,That Thing

Yeah, I?ve seen lots of these fragile things torn out over the years. I don?t recall breaking any myself, but I?ve been very careful, especially since they almost always belonged to someone else. No big deal, just safety to the temp boss, just like you did. I don?t think I?ve ever seen an oil filter on an aircraft that wasn?t safetied. I?ve also never seen an oil filter come loose on a car, and I?ve never even heard of anybody safetying one on a car. Maybe it?s just professional momentum, but I always safety them on airplanes. The consequences of one coming loose could ruin somebody?s whole day.
 
As a side note, an experienced A&P taught me early on with my first RV to use 0.032? wire for the oil filter, not 0.040?. The smaller wire is less likely to wear out the engine retaining tab.

Carl
 
Forget the safety wire on the filter.

Use the 3/4 turn after gasket contact method. Then use a marker pen to put a witness mark on the filter OD that lines up with some feature on the filter mount flange, that you can SEE when you preflight , every time you check your oil level.
After a few oil changes and pre flight inspections you will gain confidence that the filter does not back off.

Robinson Helicopter officially no longer requires safety wire on the oil filters of their Lycoming engines. You should be OK
 
I don't safety wire the oil filter on my IO-360/RV-4.

same here. Just like I don't safety wire the oil filter on my car. Time has proven over 100's of millions of vehicles that they don't come off if installed properly. An aircraft filter is pretty much identical to their auto counterparts, as well the mating piece on the block.
 
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My RV8 with Titan 0-360 has been flying with a WIX 51515 oil filter without a safety wire for over 10 years.
 
I forgot to safety wire and had a quick flight in the pattern with cockpit full of oil....

Could it have been that the same way that you forgot to safety wire it that you also forgot to tighten it correctly?


Probably time to change that filter! :D

Why would I change it? I know you have to change the oil, you can see it's dirty,
but the filter looks brand new, clean and shiny, after I wipe it down with WD40 every year :D:D
 
I made a small tab out of approx .025? stainless steel. Drilled a 1/4? hole in one end of it and a .040? hole in the other end. Bolted it to one of my unused vacuum pad bolts and used the small hole for an oil filter safety wire anchor. Put a little bend in the tab so it?s pointing right at the oil filter. Works fine, lasts a long time.
 
same here. Just like I don't safety wire the oil filter on my car. Time has proven over 100's of millions of vehicles that they don't come off if installed properly. An aircraft filter is pretty much identical to their auto counterparts, as well the mating piece on the block.

Yeah but, does your car engine shake like a Lycoming at start-up and shut-down? :eek: I ALWAYS safety aviation oil filters and I've never had one come loose! :cool:

-Marc
 
Could it have been that the same way that you forgot to safety wire it that you also forgot to tighten it correctly?

I retraced my steps after the incident and don?t think I forgot to tighten the filter. There is a possibility that I did forget. However, why skimp on such a small effort to safety wire when the consequences could be huge?
 
Safety wire is mostly an insurance that cost about a few inches of wire and 5 minutes of time. It is an inexpensive insurance that I purchase every single time when there is a possibility for it, including hose clamps.
 
Yeah but, does your car engine shake like a Lycoming at start-up and shut-down? :eek: I ALWAYS safety aviation oil filters and I've never had one come loose! :cool:

-Marc
Good point. On four hour cross country legs, I would not want to worry about the oil filter coming loose with the engine running that long.
 
Good point. On four hour cross country legs, I would not want to worry about the oil filter coming loose with the engine running that long.

Does yours shake during the entire flight? :eek: He was talking about during start and shut down. If yours is shaking for 4 hours then your oil filter is the least of your problems.
 
Does yours shake during the entire flight? :eek: He was talking about during start and shut down. If yours is shaking for 4 hours then your oil filter is the least of your problems.

The engine does not need to shake for things to come loose. Otherwise nothing needs to be safety wired.
 
The engine does not need to shake for things to come loose. Otherwise nothing needs to be safety wired.

Having flown helicopters for a few decades, nothing shakes more than a helicopter and look at Carl's post #8. When Robinson Helicopters, who had the FAA make an SFAR just for them for liability, says you don't have to then that tells me a lot.
 
The engine does not need to shake for things to come loose. Otherwise nothing needs to be safety wired.

Maybe you could explain for the rest of us what causes these fasteners to loosen then. My auto engines don't have any safety wire and I have never noticed fasteners becoming loose or falling off.
 
I thought there would be some guidance in AC43.13 relative to safety wiring oil filters, but I couldn?t find anything. Also, my Lycoming overhaul manual doesn?t address this, maybe because not all engines have an oil filter. I couldn?t find guidance on Champion?s or Tempest?s websites, but I didn?t look that hard. To me, it makes sense to safety wire your oil filter because of ?best practices? guidance that I have always used. I can?t see any good reason not to safety wire your oil filter. If you don?t have an anchor place for the safety wire, then make one. It?s incredibly easy to do.
 
...To me, it makes sense to safety wire your oil filter because of ?best practices? guidance that I have always used. I can?t see any good reason not to safety wire your oil filter. If you don?t have an anchor place for the safety wire, then make one.

Where do "best practices" come from? Some come from a Regulation and others come from "old wive's tales" because we heard it that way when we started and it's been repeated so many times.

If it doesn't have one make one? With that reasoning since the front landing gear on -As can have issues, let's make them 6" thick made out of nonbreakunium metal.

The way I see it is if those engines have been around for decades and the NTSB or the FAA or the manufacturers don't address the issue, maybe it's because it isn't an issue?
 
Having flown helicopters for a few decades, nothing shakes more than a helicopter and look at Carl's post #8. When Robinson Helicopters, who had the FAA make an SFAR just for them for liability, says you don't have to then that tells me a lot.

And how often we have had great minds design things on airplanes that have resulted in a crash?

Not trying to convince anyone to follow my practice. Personally, I think while I am standing on top of the oil filleter with safety wire attachment holes starring at me, it is is shame to take any chances to save literally two minutes of work.
 
Looking for some advice...

I was changing my oil filter last night and got careless cutting the safety wire to the oil filter. I managed to tear the tab on the accessory case that has the hole for the safety wire. So there is no hole for safety wiring the oil filter in place now.
FWIW O-360 on RV-6

That tab is there to safety the temp sensor. The filter gets safety wired to the base of the temp sensor.

The temp sensor has a crush washer, it MUST be safetied.
 
Does yours shake during the entire flight? :eek: He was talking about during start and shut down. If yours is shaking for 4 hours then your oil filter is the least of your problems.

Well let me put it this way: My airplane engine is no where close to running as smooth as my car. Heck it's not even as smooth as my Isuzu NPR HD diesel truck.

-Marc
 
Well let me put it this way: My airplane engine is no where close to running as smooth as my car. Heck it's not even as smooth as my Isuzu NPR HD diesel truck.

-Marc

I would get it checked if mine shook enough to loosen a oil filter. I?d be worried it would shake itself apart. Mine is smooth in cruise.
 
They have not built automobile that vibrates like a/c engines in 50 years, thats why a/c safety wire recommended !
 
I forgot to safety wire and had a quick flight in the pattern with cockpit full of oil. Seven qits dumped in a matter of couple of minutes! It is a small effort to safety wire.

don't forget to do a runup with the cowl off to check for leaks. :(
 
Aside from forums, where do you see it recommended? FAA Regulations, NTSB, AC43.13, Lycoming, Continental, where?
I take the safety wire tabs manufacturers put on the oil filters themselves as at least a tacit recommendation. They certainly aren't there for styling!
Anyone know of any other reason for those tabs?

George
 
I take the safety wire tabs manufacturers put on the oil filters themselves as at least a tacit recommendation. They certainly aren't there for styling!
Anyone know of any other reason for those tabs?

George

They do it because if not some people who follow the masses won’t buy their product. My oil filters don’t have tabs and they’ve worked fine for over 10 years in this RV8 and have never loosened. I always have to apply some pressure to spin it off, and I only tighten it with my hand.
 
There is another safety wire hole on the O-360 A1A (mine anyway) low on the left side, harder to get to but it's what I've used since I broke out the other one years ago.

As for whether to do it or not, I never even thought about it. If it were to come loose it would dump all my oil, and there is a place to safety wire it. Why wouldn't I?
 
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