FTO AUSTRALIA

As some of you may know, i recently purchased Adriano's FTO. Awesome car and I love it to pieces. Been just over 5000km's since the last oil change so today of all days I thought i'd give it a go. Voltaire's been using magnetec to keep tappet noise down so I thought i'd use the same. Went into kmart and got the oil at a nifty 15% off, picked up a filter at Autobarn. Guy looked in his book and said you want a Z411, I say ok, he grabs a Coopers Z411 and I hand over 10bux.

Went to change the oil, all was going well, sump plug came off easily, drained all the oil out, filter came off easily (a bit too easily, I know it can't be too tight but i'm suprised it didn't just vibrate off) and drained the oil from that. Hell I didn't even drop the sumpplug when I took it off. Put the filter on after a very quick size comparison with the old when, it went on easily, a bit too easily you may say. Started filling her with oil. 4 and a tad litres later she was all ready to go. Oh and I forgot to mention i changed the air intake while the oil was draining. Started up the car, stalled, the oil and engine lights were on. Started it again but kept my foot on the throttle and she stayed going, hear a gurgling sound, sh*t.

Turn the car off and look underneath and I see 4 litres of oil spilling out over the canvas and running down the driveway. sh*t sh*t sh*t. Ran inside, grabbed a weeks worth of daily telegraphs and frantically start mopping it up.

My first thought was i didn't do it up tight enough, so i checked but it was fine. Glanced a look at the old filter and I see a black rubber washer sitting around the inner thread hole "Ahhh, that must be it". So I take off the new filter, attach the washer around the thread and put the filter back on. Now because I only have a litre of magnetec left and all the shops are closed I grab some GTX3 from the shed (15w/40), pour that in and start her up again. Funky idling problem means it stalls and i have to keep my foot down on the accelerator, again gurgling, sh*t sh*t et cetera, car off and look underneath. More oil pouring out and going down the driveway.

Take the filter off and do a better comparison to the old one. Low and behold the new one is slightly shorter, very slightly less wide and has smaller holes around the thread hole. Jesus H f**king Christ, no wonder. Clean out the old filter and put it back in, fill the car up with the remaining GTX3 and start her. Again won't idle but this time no oil leaks, hooray. Oil light goes off but the yellow engine one stays on (have to keep foot on accelerator). Look around in the engine bay and see the air sensor plug is slightly ajar, jam that back in and engine light goes off and she idles smoothly. Hooray.

Now my car's got the old filter back on it and about 1 litre of magnetec and 3 litres of gtx3 in it. Not good but what can I do on easter sunday. It's going to be like this for the next 2 weeks as i'm thoroughly busy, i'll try to drive it as little as possible if at all.

The tappets are noisy as hell now, on start up they chatter away loudly reacting to throttle movement and after a 20minute drive there still a bit audible. Prior to today they'd be noisy for less then a kilometre of driving and then silent.

Now I can pose some questions:
- What type of filter do I need?
- What size sump plug washer?
- What sort of oil should I put in her? Magnetec, Motul 6100 or Castrol Synthetic R?

what a fun day

to answer your questions

- What type of filter do I need?
its a Z411 oil filter

- What size sump plug washer?
no idea i usually just buy one of the 'variety' packs....
though last time i just guessed and it was the right size


- What sort of oil should I put in her? Magnetec, Motul 6100 or Castrol Synthetic R?

well, i use the synthetic R stuff sometimes, Motul sometimes(last time i did) usually something around the 5w-> mark though i think next time ill try some 10w-> stuff to see if it reduces some noise
personally, with the history of your car always being on magnatec, if it aint broke why change....


my 2c

I was using a z411
Are the GPX and GR filters different? The old filter (the one back in the car now) was slightly different to the z411, it fit, but pissed out oil... The hole sizes were different, as well as the overall length of it. I don't want to go back to autobarn for another filter, so where would be good?

hmm gr could be different, sorry forgot yours was a gr, goin of gpx knowledge

why not just take the old one into one of the auto places and get em to match it, though im suprised there isnt a model no on it

SilentBob

Yeah will do, i'll take my sump plug washer down there aswell. I would of done that today, but, it being a public holiday and all... If not for the filter problem from whoa to go my first mechanical experience with the fto could of been over and done with in about 30minutes. It took 3 hours to get her back into a driveable state and save the driveway.

I hope running a mixutre of oils for a little while won't damage her (although i doubt much of the magnetic survived).

When possible always try to get oil filters from Mitsubishi. Repro parts are just not worth it sometimes. Nothing should happen in theory if you mix oils on only one occasion but not if you do it frequently. When changing the oil it is best to turn the engine over for a minute without starting the engine to build up sufficient oil pressure again. You can also fill the filter with oil before you replace it.Some filters have a valve in them to prevent oil draining back. In other cars I just disconnected the coil to prevent the engine from firing. If the engine starts to run without sufficient oil presure the tappets are the first to suffer. Perhaps this has happened in your engine as the tappets are louder. Either replace the tappets or try a thicker oil. I think the UK site had an article on how to replace the tappets on a GR. Best of luck

I always get my filters from Mitsubishi's parts department - I'm not sure how much they cost over there, but in NZ they are only a few dollars more expensive than the Repco/SuperCheap ones. And to me, that's worth it. And IIRC the same filter is used on all the 6A and 4G series of engines, so are relatively easily obtainable...

With oil filters, supposedly the ryco's and valvolines filter just as good as the OEM mistu's. but Ryco has a anti drain thing in them.

Yeah, current filters a valvoline. I'll go in and pop the bonnet and see if i can grab a model numebr...

scarecrow wrote:As some of you may know, i recently purchased Adriano's FTO. Awesome car and I love it to pieces. Been just over 5000km's since the last oil change so today of all days I thought i'd give it a go. Voltaire's been using magnetec to keep tappet noise down so I thought i'd use the same. Went into kmart and got the oil at a nifty 15% off, picked up a filter at Autobarn. Guy looked in his book and said you want a Z411, I say ok, he grabs a Coopers Z411 and I hand over 10bux.

Went to change the oil, all was going well, sump plug came off easily, drained all the oil out, filter came off easily (a bit too easily, I know it can't be too tight but i'm suprised it didn't just vibrate off) and drained the oil from that. Hell I didn't even drop the sumpplug when I took it off. Put the filter on after a very quick size comparison with the old when, it went on easily, a bit too easily you may say. Started filling her with oil. 4 and a tad litres later she was all ready to go. Oh and I forgot to mention i changed the air intake while the oil was draining. Started up the car, stalled, the oil and engine lights were on. Started it again but kept my foot on the throttle and she stayed going, hear a gurgling sound, sh*t.

Turn the car off and look underneath and I see 4 litres of oil spilling out over the canvas and running down the driveway. sh*t sh*t sh*t. Ran inside, grabbed a weeks worth of daily telegraphs and frantically start mopping it up.

My first thought was i didn't do it up tight enough, so i checked but it was fine. Glanced a look at the old filter and I see a black rubber washer sitting around the inner thread hole "Ahhh, that must be it". So I take off the new filter, attach the washer around the thread and put the filter back on. Now because I only have a litre of magnetec left and all the shops are closed I grab some GTX3 from the shed (15w/40), pour that in and start her up again. Funky idling problem means it stalls and i have to keep my foot down on the accelerator, again gurgling, sh*t sh*t et cetera, car off and look underneath. More oil pouring out and going down the driveway.

Take the filter off and do a better comparison to the old one. Low and behold the new one is slightly shorter, very slightly less wide and has smaller holes around the thread hole. Jesus H f***ing Christ, no wonder. Clean out the old filter and put it back in, fill the car up with the remaining GTX3 and start her. Again won't idle but this time no oil leaks, hooray. Oil light goes off but the yellow engine one stays on (have to keep foot on accelerator). Look around in the engine bay and see the air sensor plug is slightly ajar, jam that back in and engine light goes off and she idles smoothly. Hooray.

hahahahahaa
After reading this yesterday, something pushed me to check the oil in my car. Although I just fully serviced the car about 2 weeks ago, something still pushed me to check the quality of the oil.
Anyways, opened the bonnet, grabbed a dirty old cloth and pulled the oil level checker.
WTF!!!!!!!!!!!
I cant believe to my eyes. Rechecked the level again.
WTF!!!!!!!!!!!
I can believe what I see on the scale.

Imagine the two ticks on the scale which shows max & min of the oil level. Now grab that distance (between min & max) and add on top of where the max tick is. Incredibly too high.
I rechecked and rechecked again. Also didn’t drive the car before about 6 hours at all.
angry to SL Motorsports, although they did a good job with the car, I guess still need to check that everything is in order.

So I decided to drain some oil out, which I never done it before. However, I know how to do it, pretty easy job, but dirty. So I parked the car on a curb in front of my house. Grabbed a plastic container and a spanner and dived under the car.

Started to loosen the bolt slowly, while trying to keep the container underneath. Suddenly bolt just dropped to the ground and started to slide all the way down, in the main time, I dropped the container, and also oil started to pour out everywhere.
F#$k, F#$k, F#$k, F#$k, F#$k,
Environmental Disaster.
What am I gonna do? I put my finger on the hole to stop the oil pouring out, while getting the oil all over my hands and arm.
I tried to locate the bolt, looking around. There it is. About 5 mts away from the back bumper, slided all the way down. Looking around, there is nobody to help me to get the bolt.
F#$k, F#$k, F#$k, F#$k, F#$k,
Quickly got up, run to the bolt, grabbed it, run back, dived under, and put the bolt back in to its place.
F#$k, F#$k, F#$k, F#$k, F#$k,
Oil everywhere on the concrete. What a mess.
I reckon about a 1 lt of oil come out all up. So I left the car there to recheck the oil level later on. About 4 hrs later pulled the stick again and walla. Oil level is right between min and max, in the middle.
Cant believe my luck.

Car sounds normal, nothing unusual.
What can go wrong if there is too much oil?

i bought my oil filter from autobarn its a Cooper Z411 is this one sh*t? maybe your filter was a one off sh*t one? hahaha

Yeah i had a coopers Z411, i donno if it was just a dodgey filter, or because mine was a GR model. Not sure if its normal or not but the outer seal ring isn't stuck down or anything, it's quite free to move about and fall off if your not careful. I wouldn't recommend coopers, valvoline make quality ones. Maybe your experience would be better though.

I'm still unsure if teh GPX and GR have different filters, can someone help me out????

my rubber seal ring is stuck there in place, it wont move abit
i have a coopers on the table because a friend of a friend works at autobahn and gave me 50% off

Maybe mine was just rooted then??? it did leak surpisingly fast out of the seal of the oil filter.

where are the low and high markings on the dipstick i cant find them

The hi and low markers are like two little triangle teeth marks sortof, theres no letters or anything.

I went to repco today and got a Ryco Z411, worked perfectly. My advise, don't ever. ever, buy an inferior oil filter, ryco make them and other people copy there designs. A two dollar difference in filter can have a suprisingly large impact on the overall cost of the oil change if 4 litres of the stuff spills out on the driveway..

So hooray, my oil is done, sounds so much better, tappet noise on the first start up but that was all, quiet as a mouse afterwards, cept for the 5" zorst ofcourse.

I'll check to see if she's still blowing smoke later.

Can't beleive a sump plug variety pack cost me $6.63!!! Thats rediculous.

f**k the bolt was threaded by the person that had the car before me
f**k f**k f**k what do i do?!