Taurus oil filter

I can only hope Ford Service and Firestone used the correct size filters. I am the first person to drive this car. I have an appointment tomorrow morning and will ask to view the filter "o" ring/gasket contact area on the engine.

In the fleet that I work for, we have roughly 1500 Taurus's. In the service area I'm assigned we have about 300 which we do all the necessary PM's. I've not seen a filter come loose. I suspect that they are not being properly installed. The medium and heavy trucks in the fleet are serviced by mobile oil change companies. I make a lot of road calls because of oil leaks. 9 times out of 10 the filter is loose. Tightening up the filter correctly stops the problem until the next oil change by the mobile company.

I would suggest you do the next oil and filter change and see what happens.

============================ Have someone check the threaded nipple that the filter screws on to. I've seen these come loose causing the filter to come loose even though it was tighten well.

One question I would have is a concern of how much oil pressure the engine has especially when cold starting. It is possible that the oil pressure regulator is sticking causing excessive oil pressure. This would be a problem particularly in cold operation at high RPM's. Although this condition would usually rupture the filter housing, this may be distorting the filter plate instead. Since you are having Ford take a look, make sure they have the opportunity to install a mechanical pressure guage and check the pressure during a cold start after parking outside overnight. While they are at it, you may want them to install another filter adapter. IIRC, that is a screw-in adapter which is replaceable.

Lastly, be sure the filter is being installed and tightened properly. I believe the instructions are make sure the gasket surface is coated with engine oil - not grease - before the filter is installed and, hand tighten the filter

3/4 - 1 turn after the gasket contacts the seat. I have never seen one come loose when tightened this way. If it is being installed dry and hand tightened, the gasket will not be compressed enough to ensure it will seal properly after it is heated under pressure a few times.

Good luck

I went to a Ford Service Center today and got a LOF on the Taurus in question. This is the same facility that changed it last time Nov. 1, 03. I was able to give the filter another marginal twist (1 in.) before I started it this morning.

Technician stated that they have received a tech bulletin outlining the need to tighten the filters more on the 3.0 liter 12V engines. The bulletin was issued shortly after my last visit. I did not see the bulletin; he referred to it under a different acronym than TSB.

So according to Ford, there is a problem with these coming loose if not torqued a little more than the norm.

I also read a post from "Lugnut" which also makes sense.

Thank you all for the quick responses.

Bill