Hi, Ric Pete Cetin Ray et al

Well, I changed the oil this weekend after spending a week hunting down an
OEM Mann/Mahle from my favorite FLAPS; long story short, they couldn't
get it any cheaper than my local VW dealer ($9-10 (!)), so I wandered over
to another FLAPS that I rarely go to and it turns out that I actually know
the guy working behind the counter (I just didn't know he worked there).
So anyway, he looks up the filter in his catalog and tells me he's got what
I need in a WIX.  Hmmmm, I'd used WIXs before on my GTI and I'd never heard
anything bad about them, so I figured, what the heck, I'd give it a try.
The guy had a cut-away filter of the WIX, Fram, and AC-Delco (?) filters, 
and the WIX had the beefiest filter element by far.  Fram had the thinnest.

The EV has a cover/panel that covers the bottom of the vehicle from just
behind the bumper to just behind the engine.  The oil can be drained w/o
removing the panel, but the filter can not be reached w/o removing the panel.
The panel is held in place by four 13mm bolts (2/side) and two 10mm nuts,
and once removed, the panel can be lowered by pressing the metal retaining
tab at the front, and sliding the panel out from the two tab holes at the 
back.
The filter is behind the engine on the passenger side and I was only able to
remove it because it had a built-in hex nut stuck on the bottom of the
filter.
VW dealers must use a special tool because the original filter wasn't put on
at no 14 lb/ft ! (like it says on the filter).

Pop on the new filter, add ~6 qts. new oil and we're on the road again.

The old oil, as advertised, did have some of the finest metallic bits sus-
pended in it.  I don't recall what microns the OE VW filters go down to, but
this stuff was mighty fine...

Take care 'til next time
Norman