Unpopular opinion: after 12 years I finally stopped using safety wire on my oil filters | Aircraft Mechanics - Freelance Forum - The Community for Independent Professionals
Unpopular opinion: after 12 years I finally stopped using safety wire on my oil filters
A retired A&P at a shop in Tulsa watched me twist a filter safety wire for 10 minutes last month and asked why I wasn't using the torque stripe method, and after running it on 40 oil changes since, I've had zero leaks and saved real time on every one, so I'm curious if anyone else has dropped the wire or if I'm just asking for a ramp check someday.
Man, that Tulsa guy might be onto something but I gotta ask, what torque stripe product are you running and does it hold up after a full cycle of heat and vibration? I've seen guys mark the filter and the mount so a slip shows up right away, but a stripe by itself won't stop a filter from backing off if it wasn't torqued right in the first place. Did you check the stripe after each flight or only at the next oil change? And what's your call on the guys who say the wire is there for the ramp check, not the filter?