This is a personal story of sudden, unexpected, disaster and woe. Financial loss too! It could happen to you. But after reading of my experience, you’ll know exactly how to avoid a similar outcome…
I bought the 2009 Tacoma pictured above two years ago. It had only 63,000 miles on it, and was a beauty. My son, the mechanic in the family, helped me find it.
It didn’t take long for me to realize I had something special. The early “Tacos” have a lot of avid followers because, for one thing, they are dependable and long lasting. Especially the engines. My case being a rare exception… but I’m getting ahead of myself here.
Suffice it to say that I loved the truck like I have never loved a truck, and I told my son that I wanted to take care of it so it would last me the rest of my life.
So my son undercoated it and, when needed, he replaced the brakes and the brake lines (the typical expected little repairs). And we routinely changed the oil every 5,000 miles.
Last month it was time for an oil change. I watched as my son did the job. After draining the oil, I watched as he got a new oil filter out of his storage cabinet and twisted it on. It was the NAPA filter pictured at the top of this page. NAPA makes good oil filters, or so I’ve heard. My son bought several of them for me a couple years back. It’s nice to have the filters you need on hand before you actually need them.
I watched as my boy (35 years old now) tightened the new filter down snug. I saw him put some heavy-duty hand torque on the little filter. He’s a strong guy (reminds me of myself at his age). That filter was on tight.
The oil change was routine and it was done right... or so we thought.
The next day I drove my Taco six miles to the nearest town. On the way home I noticed the oil light had come on. I figured I better pull over, but I was on a main road. Another mile more and I’d be off the beaten path. So I kept driving…
That was a mistake. I should have pulled over immediately. But that is only part of this story.
I stopped the truck by a corn field a couple miles from home. When I got out of the vehicle I immediately saw that it was hemorrhaging oil. A flood of it was streaming down out of the engine compartment onto the road. That was a shocker.
I lifted the hood. Hot oil was everywhere and, incredibly, the oil filter was gone!
I found it lodged down lower in the engine compartment. Here is the picture I took at that time…
I had a new filter and oil at home. The new filter was a Mobil 1 that I had purchased on Amazon (I actually purchased a few of them because it's good to have them on hand, especially if you intend to have the vehicle for the rest of your life).
I corrected the situation and the engine started right up, just like always. It idled nicely. But as I drove it home I noticed a new sound. It was a dull, rhythmic hammering, especially on acceleration. Not a tapping. Not noisy. Just a dull, deep, consistent sound.
My son was perplexed over the situation. He was sure he had tightened the filter down properly. I had watched him tighten it properly. He has put a lot of oil filters on over the years. That was not the problem.
So, how in the world did that oil filter completely unscrew itself? The answer would come in time (bear with me)…
Not being a mechanic myself, I did some internet research about what can happen to an engine starved of oil. The worst case scenario is, of course, that it completely seizes up. The internals heat up and sort of “weld” themselves together. But that hadn’t happened. The engine ran. I just had that sound.
The next to worse thing that can happen is one or more bearings on the crankshaft seize up. They call it a “spun bearing.”
According to the internet experts, an engine with a spun bearing should never be driven. Reason being, even with the crankcase properly full of oil, one bad bearing could eventually lead to total engine seize up. And it could “throw a rod through the engine block.” It so happens that you shouldn’t even stand near a running engine with a spun bearing. The rod might get you!
The internet experts had me spooked. The engine had been seriously starved of oil and there was that annoying sound. It wasn’t good. So I determined that I needed to find another old Tacoma. My wife and I headed out the next morning to hunt one down… with my engine hammering away.
I explained to my dearly beloved that the engine might seize up on the way and stop suddenly. The hammering sound was more obvious after I told her that.
My wife expressed some concern about being in the truck. That got me to thinking that it would be a terrible situation if I was responsible for doing something to hurt her. I mean, I’m a TradMan, and TradMen protect their woman! So, I immediately turned around and got us back home without incident.
We took our Subaru Forester (which I have not yet destroyed) and re-headed out. Long story short… A couple hours later, I signed on the dotted line for a 2021 Tacoma with 70,ooo miles. It’s a clean machine.
Now, about that filter…
I saved the NAPA filter that jumped off its threaded post and compared it to one of the correct size Mobil 1 filters that I had. The NAPA filter had a thin O-ring seal, while the Mobil 1 filter had a wider flat rubber seal. The Mobil 1 seal would surely have more contact area. Perhaps that had something to do with it?
Well, perhaps, but then I got my digital caliper out and measured the threaded opening in the two filters. By eye, they looked pretty much the same, but the caliper revealed that there was a difference!
Fractionally speaking (I’m an old carpenter) the difference was 3/64,” which is nearly 1/8.” That was significant. I texted this information to my son.
And then, shortly thereafter, it finally occurred to me that the NAPA filter might not be the right one for my truck.
Sure enough, a quick AI query revealed that the NAPA filter number was definitely not made to fit my truck. In addition to the incorrect dimeter, the thread pitch was different.
I decided against telling my son what I had found out. He felt bad enough about it as it was. But he texted me a short while later to tell me that he called NAPA with the filter number and they had given him the incorrect filters.
So that’s my story. It cost me a lot of money that I didn’t expect to have to spend. But the good news is that you can learn (and save yourself a lot of grief) from my experience.
Lesson #1: Pull over immediately if your oil light comes on. Lesson #2: Never trust that the auto supply store gave you the right oil filter. Even if it looks the same and fits, double check with AI.
P.S. Funny thing… My son used the same incorrect NAPA oil filter on the previous oil change and it held for 5,000 miles!
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Post Script: As the saying goes, “All’s well that ends well.” I like my new Tacoma, and I’ve told my son that I want to take care of it so it lasts me the rest of my life.
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