That cheap oil filter cutter I bought off Amazon messed up my diagnosis

I tried one of those $15 filter cutters to see if my engine had metal shavings after a rough idle. The blade bent on the second cut and crushed the filter case, so I couldn't even open it properly. Spent 3 hours picking through mangled metal just to find nothing. Learned that a proper $40 tool from the parts store is worth it when you're trying to spot bearing wear. Anyone else had a cheap tool ruin a good diagnostic check?

3 comments

3 Comments

barbara_jenkins6618d ago

My buddy Mike bought that EXACT same $15 Amazon cutter last year. He was trying to check his old truck's oil after it started knocking and the blade folded up on the FIRST filter. He spent a whole Saturday with a hacksaw and a flathead screwdriver trying to get the thing apart. When he finally got in there, it was so mangled he couldn't tell if the sparkles were bearing material or just bits of the crushed filter. Ended up towing the truck to a shop anyway, and the mechanic just laughed and said he sees that cheap cutter fail all the time.

quinnm7718d ago

Wait, he bought it to check the oil after the engine started knocking? That's wild (and honestly kind of dumb, but I get it). That $15 cutter sounds like it's made of the same tin foil they use in cheap pie plates, not something meant to cut through a filter full of sludge. I can just picture him prying at that mangled mess with the flathead, probably cursing more with every scrape. And the mechanic laughing? I bet that guy has a whole collection of horror stories about these discount tools, probably keeps one on his desk as a trophy.

emma_wells8318d ago

Oh man, that's a rough story! But just a heads up, oil filters actually don't have bearings in them like that. The sparkles Mike saw were probably just metal bits from the cutter or maybe some sludge from the old truck's oil pan. Either way, I've definitely seen those cheap tools fold up way too easy, it's a total gamble.