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Re: Miata oil filter

To: british-cars%amc-gw%encore.com@yale
Subject: Re: Miata oil filter
From: alan%morpho%uunet.UU.NET%harvard@yale (Alan Dahl)
Date: Thu, 21 Feb 91 10:13:38 PST
I couldn't get a personal reply through, so I'm posting this:

DanD writes:
>>Tell me, where is that oil filter on the Miata?  I've looked at my roomate's
>>over and over and still can't find the darned thing!

It's on the passenger side of the engine about 1/3 the way back from the
front of the engine about 1/2 the way down, under the fuel injection
manifold.  It's about 3 1/2 inches around, about 4 1/2 inches tall and black,
so it's not surprising you can't find it.  You can get your hand on it, but
there's no way to get a normal oil filter wrench on it.  The dealer, however,
does sell a neat socket that fits the end of the filter and a 3/8" drive
wrench and removes the filter quite easily.  Before that part was available
the *dealer* would spend about 45 minutes changing the oil.

Now, if anything, it's actually easier some other cars I've owned.  The worst
was my old '79 Ford Mustang Turbo.  The filter was under the car about 3" above
the exhaust pipe.  To get the filter off you had to reach up and put your
arm right next to the *HOT EXHAUST PIPE* and turn (hard to get a filter wrench
in there).  When the filter was off the oil would drip onto the pipe and make
quite a mess, yeech!

The easiest car to change the filter on is a Corvair.  The filter is
vertical (closed end down) at the back of the engine.  You just undo one bolt,
let the filter drop into a plastic bag and screw a new filter on. Easy!

>>-DanD. ('73 MGB lawn ornament, '84 Mazda 626LX that starts every morning)

- AlanD. ('90 Miata, '66 Corvair, and too many more to count)


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