2000 Concorde oil leak 2.7 engine

Hi...

Not a mechanic, just an old retired electrical guy who loves cars, so take this with a grain of salt....

I spent my whole life believing that the oil filter should only be tightened by hand (and a "normal" hand, at that) and never ever with a wrench.

I'll betcha that you're distressing the gasket enough to make it leak.

And always wet your finger or a piece of rag with oil, and wet the filter gasket with it before you put it on.

Take care.

Ken

The filter adapter is integral to the oil pan casting. I would say it has to be a crack in the casting, a bad oil pan gasket - the plane of which passes dierctly over the filter seating area, or a leaking drain plug, which is almost directly below and not to far from the oil filter (be aware that it is common these days for the drain plug threads to strip out; also plug gasket may be defective).

Also, leaks in the tranny and oil cooler hose connections up in lower radiator area are commmon - leaking oil may be blowing back to the filter area.

Also - the oil pressure switch is just above the filter area, and are common leakers.

Most likely candidate IMO: leaking oil pressure switch. (Does the oil pressure light come on when idling in gear with a warm engine? The oil pressure switch leaking and getting out of cal. often go hand in hand, but the two don't always go together.)

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Thanks. I have never had any low oil pressure indications but I think that the switch issue has possibilities. My daughter's Jeep had such a problem (leaking oil but no light popping on), so I'll check out the switch.

Hand tightening is the way to go with filters, except with my car (2nd gen Intrepid, 3.2L engine), I can't get my hands up there to turn the wrench as tight as it needs to go. It is a very tight area and my fingers can only do so much.

So I do use my wrench, but carefully. I screw it on by hand until it makes contact. Then I use the wrench to tighten it to 3/4 turn (sometimes a bit less) after contact, which is how tight manufacturers recommend. I've found this easier to do if I put a piece of colored tape on the filter first to keep an eye on how far it rotated.

There is a TSB on the oil filter adapter plate coming off on my car, I'm not sure offhand if it also applies to 2.7L engines.

Something's not adding up there, Greg. On the 3.2/3.5L, the oil filter adapter base is cast into the block. On the 2.7L, it's cast integral to the oil pan. They both do have a nipple that the filter screws onto - perhaps there've been problems with that screwing out? But that's not any kind of *plate*.

I also looked up TSB's on my '99 Concorde w/2.7L, and nothing comes up in the oil filter area. Do you have a TSB number? You've got me curious.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

I just did a search on discussions on DI.net - came up with this: "I found a TSB on the oil filter loosening problem. Apparently when the adapter comes out, you are supposed to replace it with an updated one from Chrysler. All I could find was the TSB number, and its Friday night so no hope of calling the Dodge dealer and getting a copy. Heres the number in case anyone else has access:

"TSB #090299 -- SUBJECT ON OIL FILTER ADAPTER COMING OUT OF ENGINE BLOCK DURING REMOVAL OF OIL FILTER. *TT (NHTSA ID #604964, APRIL 16 1999)"

That's from a post on the 3rd page of this thread:

It must not apply to the 2.7, or at least not the '99. I only have access to TSB's specific to my car with my alldata subscription.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')