Tool Review: Performance Tool W54045 Oil Filter Wrench

If you change your own oil, you need an oil filter wrench.  (Or oil filter pliers, or an oil filter socket, or a similar tool.)  There are many different oil filter wrenches on the market, a lot of which are alike in quality.  One wrench that fits in around the middle of the pack is the Performance Tool W54045 Oil Filter Wrench.

The Performance Tool wrench is not expensive at all.  I found it for $6.99 at Advance Auto Parts.  Anyone who has read my tool reviews knows that Performance Tool is not a brand I've come to trust, but this wrench looked okay and had the ability to swivel, and the price was definitely right.

The one feature that makes this wrench stand out is its pivot point.  The wrench can swivel 90 degrees, letting you get into some tight spaces that you might not otherwise be able to reach.  However, its pivoting action is very flimsy, so unless you have a really good grip, the wrench very well might swivel right back to its original position.

Speaking of grip, this wrench comes with a plastic sleeve handle that a middle-schooler could improve upon.  The plastic handle is contoured, making it look like it provides a good grip, until the first time you go to use the wrench and you put any pressure at all on it.  The whole plastic handle slides right off, leaving just the metal frame of the wrench.

The plastic handle is worthless, and without it the metal frame has no grip.  However, if you have some good grip tape, you can wrap the metal handle and give the wrench a much better grip than it had before, even with the plastic.  I used GT-5000 Glock Grip Tape on mine, and the grip is a thousand times better than it was out of the package.

One of the descriptions online says this wrench has a safety button so that it can lock into different positions.  That would be a nice feature, but there is no safety button on my wrench.

This wrench is not a top-of-the-line wrench by any stretch.  If you need an oil filter wrench and this is the only one around, you could do worse.  But if you do a lot of oil changes, I would invest in something sturdier and made with higher quality standards.  I can't afford either of those things, so I'm sticking with this one until it breaks.  I'd give the Performance Tool oil filter wrench 2.5 out of 5 stars.

I got this wrench for $6.99 from Advance Auto Parts, but Amazon.com currently lists it for $6.34, eligible for free shipping (marketed as Wilmar but it's the same wrench).