Hi, 

I recently completed an and filter change on my car (fiesta 1.4 TDCi 04 Reg) for the first time (with a lot of butterflies in my stomach!). I am not sure if I have put the filter in properly. 

I pulled out the old filter and the rubber seal/gasket from the filter cup. I put the new seal around the cup and inserted the new filter firmly. The oil filter had a kind of protruded plastic notch on the other end which I guess is supposed to go into a slot in the filter housing. When I took this filter + filter cap assembly close to the housing, I could not see the slot clearly (as the filter assembly itself was blocking my view) and I had to kind of roughly align the slot with the notch/hole form outside and push it in and hope that it has slotted properly. I had no troubles with tightening the filter cup back in fully. 

My question really is, can I be assured that the plastic bit on the filter has entered the hole/notch in the housing properly because I was able to screw in the filter- cup assembly fully? Or could the notch have missed the slot somehow still allowing the filter- cup assembly to be screwed in fully? 

Thanks for putting up with my novice non-technical terminology! 

Mate, we all started somewhere - and I bet most of still refer to "thingies" and "whachamacallits" lol

The fact that you managed to get the filter in without major diffuculty and no leaks would suggest that it is installed correctly

Thanks SeanW .... no leaks so far...fingers crossed...