Another squashed oil filter thread

[14JSWLI]

Second oil change since owning my 14 JSW. First one was uneventful but of course I don't know what type of filter I was taking out (or if that even matters). This image isn't exactly apples to apples either because the new filter is Hengst and old is Mann. But it clearly shows the drastic change in dimensions. The oil change was done at 7,500 miles and the car has only 42k. No issues otherwise.

There are a few old threads on this topic, some dating back 10 years, with the general consensus being that this is "normal". I'm calling BS. A manufacturer like Mann I'm sure does all kinds of rigorous testing and they would not be introducing the variables of the filter getting squashed and distorted as part of "normal" operation. Normal would be if everyone was removing oil filters that looked this way, but this seems to be the minority of cases.

 

[14JSWLI]

Look at this thing!

 

[turbodieseldyke]

Is this caused by vacuum or positive pressure?

 

[PRY4SNO]

The oil change was done at 7,500 miles and the car has only 42k.

Two things come to mind:
1) That doesn't look normal from my experience. For two years I was doing 6 oil changes a year, and overall I've put about 260k km on the car in five years.
2) Your best bet is to stick to the recommended OCI at 10k miles unless you're deleted and not running vw507 oil anymore. The chemistry of that oil has detergents that scrub away previous hard wear layers of zinc on the metal surfaces, then beds down a fresh layer, and then goes into the typical lubricant phase. So when you're short changing the oil service interval you're doing neither your engine nor your wallet any favours.

 

[mikerob97]

I have performed 4 oil changes on my JSW. Change at the recommended 10K interval. Always use the VW filter and the VW oil. I buy the oil change kit from ECS Tuninig. My filter has never come out of the vehicle looking like that.

 

[14JSWLI]

No engine/drivetrain mods. I will stick to 10k interval going forward, although that shouldn't have anything to do with what we're seeing here. Previous car was 7,500 OCI so I was stuck in that routine

For both oil changes I have been buying from idparts, which seems to be very reputable although I never considered confirming the filter p/n...

Has anyone opened up their filter housing before draining the oil? I wonder how much oil I would lose if I checked on the filter. I'm not super worried about it, but it would be interesting to monitor

 

[turbobrick240]

My filters were always somewhat distorted at oil changes, but never that badly. I wouldn't worry about it though, unless the media is torn somewhere. Try taking it easy after cold weather starts until things come up to operating temp.

 

[MrCypherr]

I've had that happen i believe once or twice before parts fell off in mexico. Not really that bad though since I do my oil changes every 3 months or so which is around 10,000km. Stick with OEM filters and oil Id recommend. I dont really know aftermarket filters for our cars that are better. I know with diesel trucks, you got the CAT filters that usually perform alot better than OEM.

 

[oilhammer]

It is the soot loading in the oil. Some are worse than others.

I'd say they are all a little bit distorted. The picture above shows two identical (Mann) filters. Same engine. Same driver. Same distance (10k miles). The one on the left is before the deletes, the one on the right is after. The CR engines really soot up the oil. They get it super hot and cook it. That's why it smells so strong. I suspect that under certain circumstances, the soot load is so much it just starts to build up on the filter media. The BRM engines, which use the same filter, don't tend to do this nearly as much.