HORUSDY Oil Filter Wrench Review: Stuck Filters in the Driveway

There is a specific sound a stuck oil filter makes when you are flat on your back in the driveway: the sound of a metal band slipping, followed by the sound of your knuckles finding the subframe. I know it well. My 2014 F-150 has rolled past 190,000 miles, and my daughter's 2008 Accord has spent most of its life in Arkansas heat, which means every oil change used to start with the same prayer. Then I picked up the HORUSDY 5-Piece Standard Swivel Oil Filter Wrench set, and after six months and four oil changes, the prayer is gone.

This is not a tool that turns oil changes into fun. Nothing does that. But it is a tool that turns a 45-minute fight into a 20-minute chore, and for anyone who changes oil in a driveway instead of on a lift, that is the whole ballgame.

How I've Used It

I bought the HORUSDY set last spring, right before the first oil change of the season on the F-150. That truck has a filter that sits in a spot that is just annoying enough that I used to keep a dedicated cap wrench for it. The HORUSDY set changed that. The 2-3/4" to 3-1/4" mini head handled the truck's filter, and the swivel let me line up the handle where my hand actually had room to pull, not where the filter's position dictated.

Since then I have used it on the Accord twice, on a neighbor's Chevy Silverado once, and on a friend's Subaru Outback when he stopped by with a filter that had been tightened by a shop that apparently believed torque specs were a suggestion. That Subaru filter is the one that sold me. The swivel head found the angle, the stainless steel band gripped, and the filter came off in one clean turn without me having to climb under the bumper a second time.

The set lives in the drawer of my rolling tool chest now, not in the house, which is the highest compliment I can pay a tool. It has been dropped, kicked, covered in oil, and left out in light rain once. Nothing has rusted, and nothing has bent.

October was the real test. The Accord had gone a little long between changes, and the filter had been on there since spring, baked on by a summer of Arkansas heat. I started with the old cap wrench I had kept for the truck, and it slipped twice before I gave up on it. The second slip cost me a skinned knuckle on the heat shield, the exact injury this tool was supposed to retire. That is when I walked back to the chest and grabbed the HORUSDY small head. The swivel let me work the handle out away from the exhaust heat shield that had been blocking every straight-on approach, and the powder coat bit into the filter body where the bare metal cap wrench had just spun. The filter broke free with a pop that sounded like a jar lid, not a fight. Total time from jack to finished: right at 30 minutes, and ten of those were spent hunting for the drain pan I had set down behind the tire. Next morning, I ordered a second set for my brother-in-law, who still does his oil changes with a strap wrench and a prayer. That is the highest recommendation I know how to give.

What the Set Actually Includes

The HORUSDY set is five pieces: four swivel oil filter wrenches and one 12-inch adjustable oil filter pliers. The four wrench heads cover filters from 2-3/4" up to 5-1/4" in diameter. The mini head is 2-3/4" to 3-1/4", the small is 3-1/2" to 3-3/4", the medium is 4" to 4-1/2", and the large covers the top of that range up to 5-1/4". Between those four, I have not yet met a passenger vehicle filter that did not fit one of them.

The heads are stainless steel with a powder-coated finish, and they use a flex head design. That flex is the whole reason the set works. A rigid filter wrench only works when you can get a straight pull at it. A swivel head lets you approach the filter from an angle, which is exactly the situation you are in when the filter is tucked behind a crossmember or up under an exhaust manifold.

The included pliers are 12 inches long and adjust to fit filters from 2-3/4" to 4-1/2" in diameter. The handles have a soft, non-slip grip. I will be honest: I do not reach for the pliers as often as I thought I would. The swivel wrenches handle most of what I do. But the pliers have saved me twice, both times on filters that were so rounded over that a band wrench would not have found anything to grab.

One detail worth knowing: the whole set weighs 5 pounds, and the pliers are a full 12 inches long. That length is not for leverage, though it does not hurt. It is for reach. On the F-150, the filter sits up behind the crossmember, and a shorter tool means your hand is right up against hot metal before you even start turning. Having the extra length on the pliers puts your hand somewhere reasonable for those jobs where only the pliers will do. For everything else, the swivel wrenches do the reaching, folding to angles a rigid handle cannot manage. I have used the set on filters that face sideways, where a fixed wrench would have needed a universal joint and a lot of patience. The swivel just folds to the angle and gets on with it. The stainless steel heads have also held up better than I expected. I left them sitting in a pan of used oil overnight by accident once, and the powder coat wiped clean with a rag. No rust, no pitting, and the heads still grip a filter the way they did the day they arrived. One thing I have noticed: the flex head has a small amount of play in it after six months. It is not enough to matter, but it is there, and I mention it because I would rather you read it here than discover it yourself and wonder.

How It Performs When the Filter Is Stuck

The real test of any filter wrench is not the easy filter. It is the filter that has been on the engine for 10,000 miles, or the one a shop put on with an impact gun. The HORUSDY set passed that test on the Subaru, and again on the Accord this fall. The stainless steel band grips the filter body without crushing it. I have used cheap band wrenches that deformed the filter and made the whole situation worse. The HORUSDY heads hold their shape, and the powder-coated finish gives them just enough bite that they do not slip the way bare metal does.

One thing I learned the hard way: the swivel head means you have to hold the head square on the filter. If you let it cock at an angle, it can slip. That is true of every swivel wrench I have used, and it is not a flaw in this one. It is just the nature of the design. Once I got used to keeping the head square, the slips stopped.

The measurement standard is both Metric and SAE, which matters more than you might think. A lot of filter tools are built for one or the other. This set does not care, and neither do I anymore.

The worst case came on a Saturday in November, helping a neighbor with a Silverado whose filter had been on since before the truck's last two owners. The filter was so far gone that the band wrench had nothing square to grab. I tried the pliers first, and they got it to move a quarter turn before the filter started to crush. Then I switched to the medium head, held it square, and put my weight into it slowly instead of jerking. It took three careful rock-and-hold cycles, but the filter finally came free in one piece. That is the difference between a tool that works and a tool you have to fight. There is no ratchet, no gear, no spring-loaded jaw to fail. It is a band, a handle, and a swivel, and when something is that simple, there is less to break. That is the kind of thinking I appreciate in a tool I am going to trust with my knuckles. The neighbor watched the whole thing from the driveway and asked where he could get one. I told him the name and the size range, and I did not have to talk him into it.

Where the HORUSDY Set Falls Short

No tool is perfect, and this one has three honest weaknesses. First, the pliers are the weakest part of the set. They work, but the adjustment mechanism feels a little loose, and on a really stubborn filter I trust the wrenches more. Second, the set is heavy. It weighs 5 pounds, which is fine in a tool chest but noticeable if you are carrying it out to a friend's driveway. Third, the flex head takes some getting used to. If you have only ever used a fixed head wrench, the swivel can feel like it is going to fold on you. It is not. It just takes a few uses to trust it.

There is also the matter of the 5-1/4" upper range. The large head covers it, but I have never needed it. My F-150, the Accord, and every vehicle I have helped a neighbor with all fall in the 2-3/4" to 4-1/2" range. The big head is there if I ever need it, and I would rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

The pliers deserve one more honest paragraph. The adjustment mechanism has a little play in it, and on the Silverado job I could feel the jaws shift before they bit. I have learned to set the pliers with the filter sitting on the ground, where I can see the jaws close, instead of trusting them blind under the car. That works, but it is an extra step, and on a tool that is supposed to save steps, it is worth knowing. The wrenches never ask for that kind of patience. They just grip. If I were buying the set again knowing what I know now, I would still buy the five pieces. The wrenches alone justify the set, and the pliers are a decent backup to have in the drawer for the day a filter is too rounded for anything else. That day will come eventually. It always does. One more note on the pliers: the soft, non-slip grip is comfortable, but it also collects oil and grit, and after a few jobs the handle wants a wipe with a brake cleaner before it goes back in the drawer. A minor thing, but it is the kind of minor thing that shows up in a long-term review and not in the first-week impression.

The swivel head found the angle, the stainless steel band gripped, and the filter came off in one clean turn.

Who This Is For

This set is for the person who changes oil in the driveway, on ramps, with the truck on uneven ground and the filter in a spot that requires three joints that human beings do not have. It is for the weekend mechanic who is tired of buying a new filter wrench every time they get a new vehicle, because the four sizes cover everything from a compact sedan to a full-size truck. It is for the budget-minded driver who would rather buy one good tool once than hand over shop labor rates twice a year.

If you have a car with a filter that sits right up front, easy to reach, you may not need this set. A single cap wrench will do. But if you have ever said the words "I cannot get to the filter," this is the tool that makes that sentence disappear.

Who Should Skip It

Skip this set if you only ever change oil on one vehicle and that vehicle has an easy filter. You will use one of the four heads and leave the rest in the drawer, and a single wrench would have been cheaper. Skip it if you do your oil changes at a shop that has a lift and a tech who does not mind reaching. And skip it if you are hoping the pliers will replace the wrenches entirely. They will not. The pliers are a backup, not a primary.

Also skip it if you are the kind of person who loses tools. The swivel heads are small enough to vanish into an engine bay if you set one down carelessly. I have not lost one yet, but I have come close, and I now put each head back in the drawer before I start the next step of the job.