I'm new here and have a big problem ! I bought my step daughter a 2004 sebring a few months ago. It has a 2.4 liter 4 cylinder engine. I went to Autozone which is 2 blocks from my house about 3 weeks ago and asked them which Fram oil filter I need and they told me PH 7317. I changed the oil and filter and everything was fine. Yesterday my wife saw some oil (drops) on the driveway under her daughters car! I put it up on the ramps and found that the filter was 4 turns loose ! I thought maybe I forgot to tighten it good enough when I changed the oil , so I tightened it as tight as I could by hand and thought , job done! Today she takes the car to work (3 miles tops) and calls me and said she heard a noise at the end of the street (2 tenths of a mile) but did'nt think anything of it but, when she pulled into work the car was making a nocking sound ! My heart sank ! Me and my wife go up there right away and I found oil under the left front wheel and my heart sank deeper! I looked up under and found that the oil filter was gone ! Hoping the engine wasn't gone , I went over to Advanced autopart and asked them for a Fram oil filter and they sold me one along with the oil and I put the filter on and the oil in and prayed for the best ! The engine is rapping bad! It's gone! I found the old filter at the end of my street ,so she drove for at least 2.5 miles with no filter. Two questions I hope someone can answer for me . Autozone sells me a Ph7317 and Advance autoparts sells me a ph3614 which one is right ? Question #2 why did the old filter stay on for 3 weeks before it fell off and when I tightened it yeasterday it fell off today? Any help would would be great! I payed cash for the first filter and threw out the receipt so I don't think there is anything I can do!I have changed oil on to many cars tocount and have never had anything like this happen !

 

not to much u can do with out proof of the first filter being bought. Hummm not to be a smart *** but a factory filter will never do this and there is no question to which one will fit.

 

Did the filter you took off look the same as the 7317? I just did a quick search at Advance Auto Parts and it came up with the same number. I have the 2.7 Engine but it uses the ph16 filter. I'd be surprise if it was the 3614 as I use that one on my SX 2.0. How's your engine? Is it possible that the mounting thread for the filter is stripped and can't hold the filter in place?

 

Not sure how anyone here can help much. May have to call it an expensivelesson learned.

Lesson 1 - Don't expect the counter guy to know that stuff off the top of his head. There is a book or some sort of reference near the filters - look it up to be safe.Sounds like you got the wrong one. Too bad it 'almost' fit.

Lesson 2 - thereMUST have been an oil pressure light on when the filterfell off, maybe more lights as well. The driver NEEDS to pay attention to those lights, and stopright away if the lightcomes on.

If the rest of the car is in good shape, best bet might be to see of you can locate a wreck that you cn get the motor out of. Probablywould cost more to fix what you have.

 

When I took the old filter off I put the two gaskets together as I always do and it matched right up. This is what the district manager for Autozone told me. He said that 6 engines are made for this car , 3 are 2.4 liter, out of the 3 ,1 is a single overhead cam and the other 2 are double overhead cams. The Fram ph-7317 is for the sohc and the Fram ph-3614 is for the dohc. I have the 2.4 dohc. Autozone is working with me on a possible replacement engine. I don't know how it will work out ,but I will let you know! Thanks for answering my post!

 

I was at Canadian Tire and looked at the selection guide booket. The two filters that Railroader was told were listed against the 2.4L engine. the 7317 is metric and the 3614 is the standard. My guess is that you need the 3614...

 

standard or metric. good one...
my 2.7 has always used PH16, but now I'm switching to wix. Read this for filter info on why
http://www.dodgeforum.com/m_742533/tm.htm