ALH fuel filter installed upside down

ALH oil filter installed upside down

Yes, you read that correctly.
I recently bought a 2002 Golf ALH with 113K. I changed the oil and filter this weekend. After opening up the oil canister I found the filter "TOP" was pointing toward the ground. The filter was jammed on so hard I had to destroy the filter and cut the plastic guts with a dremel cutoff wheel to get it off.
PreChange: The oil light never lit up. I don't know the total miles on this filter. 7K just from me + ???.
PostChange: Clatter goes away almost instantaneously vs. 2-4sec prior to change.
So, now the questions I have for everyone are:
1. How much damage has this possibly done? (Should I do a compression test? or something else?)
2. What can I do to mitigate these effects? (I was told my an old-time mechanic to change the oil filter every 500-1000 miles for a good while to make sure the sludge and debris gets eliminated. Will that really make a difference now?)
3. Would this affect the turbo and its components? If so, what should I check on that system?
This is so disappointing. This guy was a mechanic. Oy...

so are we talking oil or fuel filter??? kinda makes a significant difference

Oil. Better things to worry about, it’s already done, but it is easy to change just the filter a few extra times. Whatever calms your mind man

If it does start clattering more upon startup, change the oil again

only thing you can do is check the oil for metal debris, any flakes or pixy dust
the oil filter really is for trapping things that go wrong, technically if just about any engine ran with no issues its entire life and the oil was changed at its correct service life, the filter was not necessary. now a tiny bit of metal or gasket, or whatever, that is what the filter is for so as long as it was "filtering" and it sounds like it was, no harm, just a bone head move!
Now this leads to another issue! how bad was this engine cared for, i would go over the timing belt and the indexing marks to make sure it and the timing is spot on. service is like 80K or 5 years whatever comes first.
if there is any doubt to the service of this, just do it, its not worth risking
if the PO cant put a oil filter on right or took it to places like walmart for the service, i would go over the engine with a fine tooth comb.

sorry. oil. i'm still processing how this could happen.

To Mongler98: the mechanic that worked on it since 2008 did the work. i bought it from him. he specializes in vw/audi. hmm...

i changed the fuel filter the day before the oil hence the mistake in the title. i have been distracted all day fretting over the potential fallout.

i guess the tranny is this weekend. he seemed a little nervous when i asked about the egr cleaning.

so, yes after seeing this it's all suspect. can i ask how much a TB change is these days?

GlacialFlower said:

To Mongler98: the mechanic that worked on it since 2008 did the work. i bought it from him. he specializes in vw/audi. hmm...
i changed the fuel filter the day before the oil hence the mistake in the title. i have been distracted all day fretting over the potential fallout.
i guess the tranny is this weekend. he seemed a little nervous when i asked about the egr cleaning.
so, yes after seeing this it's all suspect. can i ask how much a TB change is these days?

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Where are you located in Texas?

mechanics are the worst people other than a used rental car sale to buy a car from.
ever heard the story about the cobblers children? spoiler alert: they have no shoes!

not all mechanics are neglectful or bad to their daily driver but full time mechanics are ... well... dont want to do this when they get home every day.

never buy a house from a contractor, never buy a car from a mechanic.

just assume everything was done wrong or not at all.
like $150 to 200 in parts on the ALH, about a days worth of work. depending on what you find when you are in there, leaking seals ect.... not a difficult job but not something you want to chance.
always assume the worst even if the car was purchased from your sweet aunt Esther!

Typically that is why I do a full service when I get a new to me car. Gives me a good chance to check things out and start off right and/or find the screwups. Give it a good once over and find a new mechanic. There are some good ones in Dallas/DFW and Houston. If you are anywhere near there look them up. Money well spent!

No sludge.......... if correct oil, there will be virtually zero sludge in a TDI engine after 500k miles.

There are check valves in the filter housing that serve specific purposes. So, it's unlikely that the filter being installed incorrectly (TOP down) caused a no oil pressure or slow oil pressure build-up.

I'd drive it and change the oil at the recommended interval for the engine, and filter, of course!

The oil filter system on my ol' 8N Ford Tractor is not a full flow, meaning that part of the oil pumped by the oil pump goes directly to the bearings, etc. The VW Beetle (Air-cool) never had an oil filter.

Several years ago MANN misprinted the word TOP on the bottom of MKIV oil filters. Perhaps your mechanic had an older filter that was incorrectly printed. Still, I would think he'd notice the install difficulty and try it the other way.

IndigoBlueWagon said:

Several years ago MANN misprinted the word TOP on the bottom of MKIV oil filters. Perhaps your mechanic had an older filter that was incorrectly printed. Still, I would think he'd notice the install difficulty and try it the other way.

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Na, those were ments to ship to Australia

I'm split between Houton and Austin.

It wasn't a Mann. Some other brand.

And I'm at a good round number to check/change everything. Hence my discovery.

Tranny and EGR cleaning is this weekend even though it shifts nicely. Who knows what kind of lube is in there. Ugg.

And it seems retarded. No science behind that, but just a feeling. Milage is under my expectations. 39-42. The Bentley says 43-49. And it's only hwy. I didn't buy a diesel to see 30's. I can get that from a corolla.

Should be about 43 to 45. Can easily be bumped to 50+ with a few mods if you keep your foot light
Nothing satisfies me better than getting a mechanical thing up to snuff and knowing it's right.

If you check the oil filter, inside there is a dam that keeps extra oil inside the filter housing when the car is turned off. This allows the oil to get to the top end quicker since the oil pump wont have to fill the filter housing as much to get things moving.

with the filter upside down, your oil was draining back to the tank more than normal and this is what caused the few extra seconds of tippy tap you were hearing upon startup.

Inspect the oil you drained out for extra metal, do a short oil filter change as explained above, and hope you don't hear any other odd noises. if you do, check the camshaft and lifters first.

GlacialFlower said:

Milage is under my expectations. 39-42. The Bentley says 43-49. And it's only hwy. I didn't buy a diesel to see 30's. I can get that from a corolla.

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Manual or automatic? If it's an automatic that FE isn't too far off. If it's a manual you should be doing 5-8 MPG better.

Setting these cars up for optimum FE requires getting a number of things right. Static and electronic timing optimized, intake clean, turbo boosting according to request, good fuel spray pattern from injectors and good injector balance, brakes not dragging, correct tires at the right pressures, to name a few. It also requires that compression is to spec and that engine internals are in good condition. As mentioned above, you may also want to look at your cam and lifters for wear, especially given the oiling issues you may have had.

GlacialFlower said:

I'm split between Houton and Austin.

It wasn't a Mann. Some other brand.

And I'm at a good round number to check/change everything. Hence my discovery.

Tranny and EGR cleaning is this weekend even though it shifts nicely. Who knows what kind of lube is in there. Ugg.

And it seems retarded. No science behind that, but just a feeling. Milage is under my expectations. 39-42. The Bentley says 43-49. And it's only hwy. I didn't buy a diesel to see 30's. I can get that from a corolla.

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I wouldn't dunk/soak the EGR valve in any kind of cleaning fluid. With it removed, you could use a putty knife and brake cleaner. If the weep hole on the top is seeping oil on it then you just need to replace the valve.

With VCDS you can run a test on the valve to make sure it's operational. Also, the timing can be checked as well. I often get to New Ulm/Brenham area so if you need VCDS to be run let me know.

I am in the Austin area as well. If you happen to be up this way arrange something with me. I also have VCDS.

To IndigoBlueWagon: 5-speed

To Lightflyer1: I'll be in Austin next fri around Barton Springs until mid-afternoon. most likely head to G-town after that.

To Growler: The noise on startup is minimal now; what I would expect to be "normal". Before this I took it to all of my friends and asked them if that much clatter was normal. No one knew and the 1Y I have has a different sound all together.

I'll change the filter and oil again this weekend, inspect, and post.

To jokila: I live south of Brenham.

I am in Round Rock kind of half way between the two. If you wanted to stop by I could scan it for you. I work from home this Friday.

GlacialFlower said:

To Growler: The noise on startup is minimal now; what I would expect to be "normal". Before this I took it to all of my friends and asked them if that much clatter was normal. No one knew and the 1Y I have has a different sound all together.

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You really shouldn't hear any clatter on startup in an ALH. I get some in my AHU when it's sat for a while (which is usually) despite having received new cam and lifters about 40K miles ago. My ALHs are quiet.

even IF there was no oil left on the cam and lifters from sitting 3 weeks, a start up will build oil pressure every quickly, its not ideal what happened but i highly doubt any damage was done. far more damage can be done with running not enough oil.

Aside from checking the oil drained for metal, i would not even bat en eye at it even if it did have some pixy dust. anything that may have come off from wear was sucked up into the filter, as long as you dont see a lower oil PSI now, its fine and no reason to worry. still worth a visual check of the cam and lifters though for peace of mind vs taking my word for it!

Mongler has a point about mechanics in their cars, that could explain the fudge up. Your clattering could be the resuult of dry starts. Engines such as small block Chevy‘s have a check valve in the oil filter that prevents oil from draining from the block. -tdi‘s might have a similar system. I noticed oil stays below the filter when you drain the pan and the filter may keep the canister from draining preventing oil from draining back as the car sits. More frequent oil changes may be in your future, the clattering will let you know. I would suggest a thicker oil but your turbo might not like that. Or find and fix the clatter

Point being your mains may have loosened up from dry starts

didn't read thread

only difference is that there is a standpipe on the ID of the filter, so that the filter housing doesn't drain back into the engine as fast
there is also a couple spring loaded check valves in the housing that also prevent this drainback

really no big deal as the vast majority of cartridge filters do not have any of this going on
first thing you'd notice wear in would be the turbocharger thrust bearing, if that's fine then forget it ever happened

Actually post #16 addresses this also I just noticed

Lightflyer1, I meant I'll be that way *next* friday... like the 13th...

IndigoBlueWagon said:

Several years ago MANN misprinted the word TOP on the bottom of MKIV oil filters. Perhaps your mechanic had an older filter that was incorrectly printed. Still, I would think he'd notice the install difficulty and try it the other way.

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this^^ got a few myself, kept them for my own tdi's to avoid future confusion with customer cars