124 oil filter bolts rounded off
 

I went to change the filter on my wife's 87 300D (the scalded dog) and found that the yutz that changed it before had rounded the bolt off!!!! I tried several methods but the shoulders are almost completely rounded off. I'll replace the item if I can just get the old one off. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
clint

Doesn't that filter have nuts on top of studs?

A good pair of vice-grips with sharp jaws should easily remove them.

Center bolt
 

Yes, there are two nuts on the edges of the filter housing and they are fine. Its the center bolt (my 123 does not have it but the 124 does) is what is stuck. I've tried to use vice grips but cannot seem to get it to bite hard enough to keep it from slipping also.

You mean the center bolt? I gave up on ever getting that out, and find it relatively easy to just remove the clips and take out the center piece of the "false" firewall. If you take off the rubber weatherstrip (it just pulls upward) then you can see where the center of the plastic false firewall can be removed.

This gives clearance to pull off the filter cover with the center post still attached to the cover. (A bit different from the 616/617 cars which already have clearance to remove the cover and don't have the same arrangement.)

Ken300D

Thanks!
 

I'm a real goof. I didn't try to get the cover off (with the center bolt still attached to the cover) because I was so mad that the previous oil change guy rounded the shoulders off. If I can pull the cover and leave the center bolt in, I'll just leave it like you did.
Thanks again,
clint

........center bolt??

WTF is a center bolt??:confused:

The 603 on the SDL's don't have a center bolt??

on the 87 300D there is are the customary nuts (2) on the edge of the oil filter housing. There is also a bolt that runs down through the center of the oil filter housing. On my 123 it is integral to the top of the filter housing. On the 87 300D, it is a separate bolt.

Yes, on the SD and the SDL's it is integral to the top of the filter housing. I'd never seen the separate bolt before...........

You have difficulty to remove the cover with the bolt in place??

The bolt is there to allow you to remove the cover without taking the firewall apart. Mine is well and truely seized -- no one seems to know about antiseize, eh? Not a snowball's chance in the bad place it's ever gonna come out.

I just pull the plastic firewall up, easy enough and take a couple seconds.

Peter

Brian,

Yes - on the 1987 300D, there is insufficient clearance to get the oil filter cover off the cannister due to the tight engine fit against the "false" firewall. So, either you get the "center bolt" loose and detach the "center pole" from the lid, or you remove the center section of the false firewall.

All this even though the filter is significantly shorter for the 603 than the 616/617.

Ken300D

OK, Ken..........I see the problem...........they made the car too small........:D