I bought my 2015 Laramie a couple weeks ago. After a month I noticed a leak. I asked my buddy if his 2013 ever did it. He said yes,it has 3 times so far. I crawled under and hand tighter my filter as tight as I could. I couldn't believe it was so lose,same situation my buddy had with his. This seems pretty ridiculous to me. I found this info on a Durango forum. Could or Rams be having the same issue and possibly use the same fix?
Chase300
Atlanta
Feb 15, 2015 · #1
Leaking Oil Filter Hemi
I posted where I had a disaster changing the oil on my new to me '14 Hemi Durango in another thread where the factory had the filter on so tight the filter gasket stayed on the truck which created a big leak when I put another filter on.
However, since discovering that and putting the filter back on with only one gasket, I have still been battling a leak.
Much smaller of course, but it was still leaking ending up with small drops in the garage and clearly wet all around the filter and underside of the truck.
I ended up replacing the filter again using Mopar 899 factory replacement filters and really cranking down on them as much as I could.
Still leaking.
No way I could have gotten back to back bad filters!
So, I decided to look at this closer before going to the dealer as 1, I have the tools and 2, I believe I'm way smarter than most of the dealer mechanics they hire.
Here is what I found and might help others if they run into this issue.
I first measured the filter opening where it screws on and wanted to know the depth it allows.
There is only about 1/2" before the Mopar 899 filter reaches a lip inside which prevents it from mounting any deeper than that.
That means the pipe which it screws onto the filter housing can't be more than 1/2" out from the mounting flange otherwise the filter won't seal properly.
When I measured the pipe which the filter mounts to it was right at 1/2" out from the flange.
In my case that meant filter the seal was probably just making contact with the flange but it could not be snug down enough to seal properly.
The mounting pipe is screwed into the filter housing using a T60 size hex head socket.
I tightened the pipe maybe a turn more in as it was sung already, but that gave me more clearance to mount the filter.
Success!!!
Filter is now snug, does not leak and doesn't have to be cranked on either.
Anyhow, if anyone runs into this issue on a Hemi the solution is to tighten down the oil pipe into the housing a bit.
The factory did not have it in far enough in my case and I'm sure my engine is not the only one out there with this issue.
Also I looked at filter designs too and noted the Mobil 1 Extended Performance Filter to be a better design for sealing than the factory filter.
It does not have a lip inside it so it is not limited to only a 1/2" of depth like the Mopar filter is.
Plus the mounting seal is extended about 2mm further out compared to the Mopar filter giving additional depth as well for sealing.
So an alternate solution to adjusting the filter mount pipe inward would be to fit a Mobil 1 Extended Performance Filter.