Admittedly VW's oil filter location doesn't make for the cleanest of oil changes but your problems seem to be greater than most. The oil filter doesn't need to be tightened by Gargantua - in fact, the filter's recommendation is usually a 1/2 turn past the point where the gasket contacts the flange. If you really want to be careful, go for 2/3 of a turn past "touchdown" but any more and you'll only have problems taking off the filter.
There is a fixed gasket, although I don't think it's an O-ring that fits between the oil filter boss and the oil/water exchanger. There's also a gasket between the exchanger and the filter which is part of the filter. Most likely you've damaged the filter housing/exchanger gasket but it's a relative easy albeit dirty fix. However, don't buy the parts at a junkyard - the gasket should be fairly standard and inexpensive. As for removing the filter in the future, find yourself a strap-type filter wrench - one that uses seat belt material to wrap around the filter and has a provision to attach a 1/2" drive wrench so you can turn the filter. This is the best for applications that don't have much room to work - this even removes seemingly impossible filters as in a GTi I once owned - it took the aforementioned wrench AND a 2' breaker bar to get the filter to even turn!! --- Fernando valdez <[email protected]> wrote: > Ok I really hate changing my oil, everytime i end up > with a mess, today was no exception. > > The problem is with the oil filter, it's a real PIA to > take off i can't fit a tool to take it off, and is > tight as hell i always end up taking a screwdriver and > putting it thru the oil filter, today to my surprise > the oil filter came off with just my hands, I said > "finally" NOT!!! once again my vw got the best of me, > the oil filter came off with the entire screw thing > that goes thru the oil cooler (i guess that is an oil > cooler), so i ended up with the oil filter attached to > the oil cooler, after fighting with it i finally got > everything apart so i put back the screw atached the > oil cooler to the block and attached the new oil > filter again everything as tight as i can with my > hand's cos there is no way I can use a tool here. of > course after putting the oil in i started the car, and > yes, i was leaking oil thru the shortblock and oil > cooler joint really bad. Does an o-ring go between the > block and oil cooler?? if so whats the part number? > what i can do any suggestions, anyone has a simpler, > more easy, less messy way to change the oil, now I > can't use my car cos there are no stores around and > tomorrow i will go to the yunkyards and learn and get > what i can from there, im going to see if i can take a > closer look to an engine while there. Do all these > cames in the bentley? ===== Matthew Yip http://www.geocities.com/mgyip/ '81 Rabbit diesel - '87 GTi 16v "General Li" - '88 M5 - '99 F350 psd __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ _____________ List Sponsor: http://www.netsville.com To remove yourself from this list, send mail to [email protected] with 'unsubscribe a2_16v' in the body of your message See us on the web at http://www.a2-16v.com Visit the 16V Homepage at http://www.gti16v.org
