I tighten by hand. I did have to buy Walmart cap wrench once to remove a stubborn filter. I found it to be too loose so I just laid a single piece of blue shop towel in it and that created a tight enough fit to remove the filter.

I was driving cross country and needed an oil change, it was snowing, I didn't think I was going to drive that far so I didn't have tools to change my oil and I wasn't about to buy a pan or drain my oil on the ground so I stopped at a Mobil station in UT. They obviously used a wrench to put the filter on. When I finished my trip I changed my oil again at home to discover that my oil plug was cross-threaded and the filter was on so tight that the thing looked like a soda can that you twist until it starts to crush. I'm glad I only put 2000 miles on that oil.

 

dam hackers

 

I cain't twist the cap off the milk when it's got the retainer ring on it....I gotta use a fork to get that off, then I get the cap off. Not all of us are that strong and some of us have a decent amount of joint pain that kinda impedes the kind of force necessary to accomplish the same thing a much stronger person can. I agree, it's easy to over tighten, but a tiny bit of help from a wrench is what I need. I'm sorry I can't seem to do any better than that.

Oh yeah, I always put a little clean oil on the gasket and wipe clean where it seats, and for the 23 years I've been changing oil I've never had to rip into one to get it off (on my own vehicle), had a gasket squish out, had it leak or cross threaded one so even if I'm ruining the oil filter I must be doing something ok. Just because I use a wrench doesn't mean I torque the heck out of it, it just gives me that little nudge the rest of you apparently own in your bare hands. Must be nice.

AND ANOTHER THING! I'm no oil change amazo-person, I just think that while the hand-tightening thing is important and bravo those who can, but don't come down on those of us who simply need a little help. A filter falling off is a bad thing too, right?

 

I just use a set of oil filter pliers like these for filter removal.
They're made by tons of different brands (Lisle, Snap-on, Channellock, etc)



You shouldn't ever install a filter more than hand tight, just put some oil on the rubber seal and tighten as much as you can by hand. I have rarely seen one leak unless someone double gasketed it by accident (ie when the old gasket sticks to the block and then someone doesn't check and just screws a new filter back on).

 

I'd use the claw to get it off with. That's what I use at work (GM dealer tech) and if the oil change guy is busy or I'm doing an oil change as part of my repairs then I will just hand tighten the filters. Just a reminder though... make sure the old gasket comes off or you will have just bought a brand new engine. As far as tightening down the filter, do not tighten it with a wrench as tight as you can. I had a come back due to our (sarcasm here) greatest oil change tech ever. He tightened down the filter too much and it started squirting out the gaskets. The shop had me to back flag him .5 hours just for me to put a new one in and do it right.

 

ditto on not overtighting it the one time i changed the oil in my sisters camary if you seen where the filter is its soo easy to get at man toyota must of use a impact wrench or something it took 5mins to get it off