Kia Plastic Oil Filter Housing

Any Korean car denizens had to deal with replacing one of these diabolical things?

I cracked the housing the night before we were leaving for a trip to the east coast (2013 Sorento V6).  On top of making the stupid thing plastic, they put a 27mm hex on it to encourage hamfisted DIYers to break something...

I managed to get a rental car for the week, a pretty nice Highlander which has been my first exposure to adaptive cruise control.  Overall, i like it, even though it can only partially attenuate the misery of I84 in CT.

So. Back at home, found a replacement housing while we were gone. Seems innocuous enough, four bolts, how hard could it be?

The assortment of hardware around it gives a clue...So, this was carefully designed to be inaccessable.  After pulling off the intake, which wasnt a big deal because I needed to do the plugs anyway, i discovered how inaccessible:

The two front bolts are easy, but the back two are buried under the coolant pipe, which feeds into this massive black plastic coolant plenum of despair...

Currently taking a break and trying to find what small 10mm tools I have around. I found some ignition wrenches in the basement. 

Anyone ever managed to do this without disassembling the entire plastic cooling system?

What happened to yours? I was thinking you broke the top and if so, I would just change that part. 

One of my cars has a plastic top just like that, I torque it to 25 Nm, as written on it, and it has never been a problem. 

That's ridiculous if that's the best way to do it!  But then again, I have to remove intake snorkels to replace the battery on both our Odyssey and our Pilot!  One uses (Philips) screw-in clips, and for the other I have to keep a trim panel clip remover in the car to remove the snorkel (although a flat-head screwdriver would work).  I have to think they're making it harder to discourage self-service.

In reply to Slippery :

I believe i cracked the housing, after I changed the oil there was an impressive puddle under it and when I took the cover off there was no oil inside the housing (normally stays full of oil).

I wonder if it was slightly cracked before, there's a decent amount of oil/dirt built up on one side of the housing. 

At this point I have one bolt left which i can do about 1/16 turn at a time, sometimes:

Good times...

I think I would be the bullet and pull that coolant pipe - I would not be comfortable with the liklihood of sealing up that unit without being able to clean the mating surfaces.

I had heard that they played with cartridge filters. Never seen one in the real though. 

In reply to bobzilla :

So you haven't seen the monstrosity on the one V6 that hangs the filter kind of below the crank pulley?  Those are known to break, too.

I have nothing to add other than to bite the bullet and pull the coolant pipe.  I don't see how that can be snaked out, and after you snake it out, how do you snake the new one in without dislodging an O ring?

Berkeley

Last bolt is 97% out, but I think its bottoming (topping?) on the underside of the coolant pipe now, where the little wrench is in the pic above.

Bugger

I think you guys are right; but touching all this plastic E36M3 scares the heck out of me, I feel like something unobtanium is going to crack when I touch it.

Also, bonus helping of hantavirus soaked in oil found in the valley:

Blech

A lot of cars use plastic in the oil and coolant systems, my MINI has a pipe that runs from the t-stat on one end of the engine to the water pump on the other end, it usually gets brittle over time and breaks the end that retains the sealing o-ring off in the back of the pump. Getting to it requires removing the intake manifold and all its associated plumbing and the t-stat which is this curious, huge heart looking bit with 7 hoses attached to it!

Your job looks easy by comparison, I hope it is.....

I put them back together with a liberal coating of silicone grease on the o-rings in case I ever need to take it apart again.

Well, that sucked...

After pulling the airbox & battery box, I was able to get the ginormous thermostat housing/plenum thing pulled back to get the pipe out:

Get the new one installed and did a bunch more hantavirus remediation.  No clue when a rodent family occupied the valley, as the car is in the garage 99% of the time.

I also changed the oil pressure switch, as the best youtube video I could find about pulling the manifold was doing so to changile out a failed OP switch.

I don't actually see a crack in the old housing, though. Im wondering if it only presents while pressurized?

I'll put it together tmrw.

I felt nervous about cracking the housing on our Sedona anytime I did an oil change.

I would use an oil filter strap wrench on the cover  right near the bottom close to the threads instead of the hex to distribute the load more evenly. The hex always felt fragile and made funny creaking noises the times I tried to use it. 
 

Edit: The leak may only show up when it is hot and the plastic expands. 

Aren't there 2 O-rings on the threaded cap.? I have bought filter kits from the dealer that had only one O-ring.  Now, I open the kit at the parts counter before leaving.   It needs both o-rings.

I also have become nervous about tightening the lid after the filter change.  On the 2023 Carnival the whole mess is involved in chassis and suspension parts.  Getting the lid on without cross-threading is always a chore.

When I am under the Kia I always ask myself why in 2023 am I still changing cartridge filters instead of a spin-on.   

Just as painful as replacing one on a VW. You have to take the entire front of the car off for access.

Having seen how absolutely idiotic these things are, I actually use a torque wrench to tighten my canister to the factory spec and NO MORE. Not a job I ever want to repeat.

It didnt used to make me nervous, and I honestly like the filter on top. 

Regarding O rings on the filter cap, we've had this for about 75k miles, always just had the single O ring, and the new cap came with single O ring installed ( and a filter, which was a bonus). It does look like there's a groove for a second O ring, though.

Sooo, current status, after completing an unsuccessful Tour de FLAPS with no joy, waiting for the Kia dealer's computer system to come up to get new O rings for the coolant pipe. 

My son's 09 Volvo, my 2019 Fusion and the 2023 Exploder ST all have the plastic housings. So far so good for me, but I'm pretty careful about these things.

OK to sum this up:

Painful, but appears to be successful after a brief test drive.

I ended up getting the O rings for free !!!! from the dealer BC their computers were still down. 

Cleaned up the other O rings for the thermostat housing, gingerly reassembled everything, including new, faster blue intake o rings

Used a can of degreaser to get rid of all the oil, and went for a ride. So far, no evidence of leakage...

In case someone else should ever have the misfortune of doing this job and google it, here's

https://youtu.be/GhTEaYIGC1M

The video I referenced for pulling the intake.

Interesting addendum, while I was working in the garage this dude from up the street stopped by to introduce himself. He was excited about the RSX and Saab in the driveway,  has an 80s 280ZX and an Acura CL Type S, and just picked up an early TT Quattro 6spd- I told him he needs to come here to join his people...

Glad its fixed!

Did you ever figure out where it was leaking from?

Purple Frog (Forum Supporter) said:

When I am under the Kia I always ask myself why in 2023 am I still changing cartridge filters instead of a spin-on.   

Three of my four cars and all three of my GF's cars are cartridge. Every time I have to change the oil with the spin-on filter I curse it and wish it were a cartridge.

Slippery said:

Glad its fixed!

Did you ever figure out where it was leaking from?

I assume there's a crack i cant see in the housing somewhere despite not having a ginormous visible crack.  I also changed the oil pressure sensor since I was already in the valley. I dont think it was actually leaking, though, as the hantavirus-laden mouse fur packed under it was dry while the other side closer to the filter housing was pretty saturated.

Whatever I did 'seems' to have fixed it, no drips on the driveway or the bottom of the bellhousing so far!

I've only worked on a few Kia / Hyundais, but it always seems like all Korean plastic is about as strong as the average waffle cone. 

buzzboy said:

Purple Frog (Forum Supporter) said:

When I am under the Kia I always ask myself why in 2023 am I still changing cartridge filters instead of a spin-on.   

Three of my four cars and all three of my GF's cars are cartridge. Every time I have to change the oil with the spin-on filter I curse it and wish it were a cartridge.

Shocking!!!  I just assumed that everything made in the last 100 years was a spin-on type.  Found it quaint that the E39 530i uses a cartridge type. 

In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :

depends on the age and heat cycles. No better or worse than any of the honda, toyota or ford plastics I've dealt with. I think pretty much anything plastic in the engine bay is going to get cooked with age. 

1988RedT2 said:

buzzboy said:

Purple Frog (Forum Supporter) said:

When I am under the Kia I always ask myself why in 2023 am I still changing cartridge filters instead of a spin-on.   

Three of my four cars and all three of my GF's cars are cartridge. Every time I have to change the oil with the spin-on filter I curse it and wish it were a cartridge.

Shocking!!!  I just assumed that everything made in the last 100 years was a spin-on type.  Found it quaint that the E39 530i uses a cartridge type. 

Almost all European cars are cartridge, and a lot of Asian cars as well.

I got a hint as to why when the blurb for the new TDI engine in the New Beetle said that the oil filter was "100% incinerable".  Incineratable?  It could be burned as regular trash, no metal components.

The better cartridge filters are all media with only a thin piece of paper or cloth to hold it together.

Personally, I like them, you get a lot more filtration media that way, and you don't need a filter cutter to examine for unhappy flakes.