FRAM "orange cans of death"?

[Volvofix1]

OK guys listen to me I have been working on Volvos for almost 50 years and had a large Volvo shop in Conn.for 36 years. One very cold January a customer called and said she had a big puddle of oil under her Volvo. I went to her house and Found that the orange filter had leaked badly, the car was then towed to my shop and we replaced the filter with a Volvo/Mann filter and checked the oil pressure which was satisfactory. She had recently had a "rapid lube " service done the filter was tight but leaked because the base seal failed. I also saw this happen to a 2002ti BMW with an orange filter. My shop was in Westport Ct. right next to I95 and I saw more Volvos from out of state towed in because the engine blew and they just had an oil service done in NY or NJ with the orange filter and were headed to Cape Cod. At my shop we did some experimenting with an oil pressure guage screwed into the oil sender switch fitting and tested other oil filters with surprising results in pressures. Volvo later came out with a brochure that independently said what we found to be correct. There is a reason to use quality OE type parts for Volvo service and anyone who says this is silly just is not experienced in doing proper well done auto repairs. I could go on about other situations I have seen,but I have made a very good living and reputation servicing Volvos correctly.

Dick K...still fixing Volvos in Fla.

[igel513]

The base seal on any oil filter would leak if filter is over tightened. They should be hand tight (read instruction on the box)
and Fram should not give you problems. We have 8 cars in our family and we all use Fram and had no problems.

[lummert]

If you're not comfortable using anything other than a European filter, the Mann filter for a 1983 Audi 4000 with 1.6 liter turbo diesel is W940/25 the Mahle is OC510F. This same filter is the recommended filter for the VW/Audi 1.8 liter Turbo gas engine used up until about 1999. It is also used on 1983 Volvo 245 with D24 2.4 liter diesel (not turbo diesel).

[Volvofix1]

About the orange filter,my son who now is the owner of our Florida shop saw my replies and said "Dad some people are not going to listen to your voice of experience and do what they want anyway remember, we sell,intall and repair Volvo engines"

Dick K.from Fla. aka the old Volvo mechanic

[jest2525]

So... it appears that there really are no issues with the orange cans. It's all automotive urban myth I suppose. Even "volvofix1's" info really only points to shoddy installation, not any actual failure of the filter.

Thanks all for the info and opinions.

~ John