Former VWDieselParts.com Forum

Hi folks! New in here, I have a 1981 rabbit with 1.6 non turbo diesel. The car ran great for several months . Then for some reason the oil filter popped. And I mean it looked bloated and blew apart at the crimped seam. Replaced with new filter/ oil , started idled no prob . Revved up a little and again oil filter pop! Thought oil pump relief valve not opening so I replaced pump. New filter , oil, start, idle , revv, and pop goes the oil filter. Anyone here see this before? Using wix filters, haven't put a gauge on her yet to check pressure.

Weird! Thought all the reputable filter companies had solved that issue by the late 1970s. WIX is now a subsidiary of MANN+HUMMEL, as is Purolator.

Personally, been using WIX #51714 (FIAT-Iveco application; larger capacity than #51191, listed for the VW application) in my VW diesels for many years with no problems. May have to reconsider now... or at least watch very closely! Baldwin filters have had a good reputation in H-D truck diesels for decades.

Might want to see what Jack, the owner of this forum, recommends & sells. http://www.vwdieselparts.com

I would be willing to bet you have damaged intermediate shaft bearings. That is probably what stuck the first pump. Could be the 2nd as well. This is generally what causes the problem. I bet your front bearing is gone on the area of load bearing (i.e. the direction the belt shoves the shaft in the block) (which is outer-front).

You failed to say if the 2nd pump was new or not. Does not really matter if the pan and walls of the block are littered with bearing fragments. Seen it several times before on other guys engines who like to run the cam belt too tight.

The pressure relief valves do not receive filtered oil.

Zpifer, what weight motor oil are you running in your '81 Rabbit? Some of the early VW diesels would jump up to 150+ psi oil pressure on cold start-up. A multi-grade diesel-rated oil might lower the initial cold pressure a bit, and actually even get the oil to all the rotating parts more quickly than a straight 30W or 40W. (Obviously, being right off the pump, the pressure relief valves only react to pre-filter oil pressure)

Although Bosch filters for German cars used to all be German made (by Mann? or Knecht?), it appears that much of their filter line today is instead manufactured (somewhere?) by the private label (and 'bargain' price/cheapie) filter maker, Champion. Fram filters, too, according to several sources, have lowered their quality.

There are several online sites that purport to have cut apart quite a few different filters, in hopes of shedding some serious (unbiased?) light on the subject of filter quality. One that seems fairly straightforward is https://bobistheoilguy.com/, and it gets into the value of oil analysis also. Goes without saying, of course, that ANY site can have info that is out-of-date, or just plain incorrect. BTW the Baldwin oil filter model for your '81 is #B114.

It will be interesting to find out what is/was causing the filter problems for you. Good luck.

Postmortem on pump and filter would be instructive.