I got done with the my first oil change in the CTD with amsoil 15w-40 and a stratapore filter, but first I had to take off the old filter. Holy crap, I think the dealer had a 500 lb ape put that thing on. I weigh about 150 lbs and I had to put all my weight into moving that thing and work on it for about 2 hours to get it to budge. When I finally got it off I saw that there was no oil on the seal which probably made it a crap load harder to get off. I tried a strap filter which dented it, a cap filter which stripped the bottom, and finally a regular wrench that loved to slide until it finally got some grip. The aftermath was a destroyed filter and skin vanished from my knuckles, but a fresh pan of oil. Anybody else have something like that happen to them?

 

there is a thread in 3rd gen where a guy did his first oil change on a hemi and had an issue similiar to urs. my guess is the filter is put on at the factory by a machine that just does it fast and it ends up being too tight

 

I usually use my largest set of channel locks for a good grip! once its squished and turning, them my hands can finish

 

Yup. Welcome to the club. Went through 2 plastic cap wrenches, strap wrench, chain style wrench, and cracked 2 different steel ones trying to get mine off.... finally gave up had it towed to the garage for them to get it off. Took a pro about 45 minutes to get it to budge even. Should have heard the screech when it finally let go, I was 2 rooms away and heard it over the shop noise and through a closed door.

 

Oh boy, I'm just getting ready for my 1st oil change. I wonder if I should just take it to the dealer. We had that happen in a chevy caprice. We ended up with a large cold chisel through the damn thing, box end wrench around the chisel, and a pipe on the wrench for leverage to get the thing off. That's rediculous. Dodge needs to lower the torque on that robot!!
Just curious, is the oil pressure higher on a diesel than a gasoline engine? and does the filter need an extra full turn after finger tight??

 

The funny thing is thats its not a new truck so the tech had to put it on that tight. He really torqued that sucker down. Like methos said, it was pretty loud when it finally let go.

 

I allways taken mine off bare handed, but then I bought it with 25000 miles on it, so it had been done a few time allready.

I find just hand tight and I never had a problem with it leaking after doing the last three by hand

 

I did mine hand tight once, checked it one day out of the blue and found it to be a 1/4 turn or so loose. [:@]

now I hand tighten it, but with a kick!

 

Yea definately hand tight is the way to go. I go hand tight and a slight bit past mebbe a quarter turn and consider it good. putting em on that tight can cause leaks sometimes. stupid that a tech would do that.

 

Just another reason why I do my own work unless its something that I have no clue on and can't figure out like why it took 3 tries to get the truck to fire up this mournin.... wierd...

A good way to break a tight filter as the one you described is to pull the motor for easy access and weld a 12ft pipe on the filter housing andget as many of your strongest buds to help turn it...that usually* gives you the torque to break it...