Here is a great page to check out regarding oil filters:

http://members.nbci.com/minimopar/oilfilterstudy.html

And yes, our engines need the back flow valve- and our filters are
different than the inline filters... even though Fram says they are the
same.

cheers
Matthew

Matthew Pollard             http://www.uidaho.edu/~poll7356
Dept. of Chemistry               http://www.chem.uidaho.edu
University of Idaho                   http://www.uidaho.edu

On Thu, 5 Apr 2001, James W Wagner wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> I just read a post that advised against using common name brand oil
> filters for Vanagons, but I can't remember why that is.  I compared a
> Pennzoil filter with an official VW/Audi filter (black with VW and Audi
> logos on it) a while ago, and they "looked" nearly identical.
>
> I haven't thought about this for a while, but I thought there was some
> kind of relief valve in the official filter?
>
> Thanks,
> James
>