Trouble with your motorhome oil filter?

With summer well and truly over, many owners are laying up their motorhomes for the winter. Yet, when planning to store any vehicle, it is a good idea to treat it to a full service, including changing the engine oil and filter. Replacing the oil especially has many benefits, including reducing the chance of internal engine corrosion.

Many motorhomes on UK roads are not bespoke. They tend to be conversions from mass-produced commercial vehicles. One of the most common types is a light commercial vehicle, badged typically as the Fiat Ducato, Citroen Relay and Peugeot Boxer.

Renowned supplier of quality car parts, Mahle, informs GEM of a particular issue with these vans, after they have been converted. In unmodified examples, there is plenty of room to replace the filter. However, many camper conversions have an extra oil cooler installed after the vehicles left the factory.

Thanks to the extra oil feed and return lines, additional oil pressure switches and temperatures, there is considerably less space available to remove and refit the oil filter. Mahle reports that, in some situations, the filter's thread can become jammed. In extreme cases, the lack of access is so bad that the filter cannot be fitted at all. Obviously, this has serious ramifications for the engine, if the filter is not replaced following the manufacturer's maintenance schedule.

Fortunately, Mahle has found that, when installed, a commonly-available oil cooler sandwich plate moves the filter by several centimetres, making life considerably easier. Pictured is Mahle's OC248 oil filter, suitable for these Citroen/Fiat/Peugeot vans, fitted to the plate.

Naturally, this information is useful regardless of whether members change their camper van's oil from home, or have the work performed by a garage.

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GEM Motoring Assist is a members’ motoring and road safety organisation in the UK. Our aim is to keep our members on the move… whether that’s through our breakdown recovery service or our motoring and road safety expertise.

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