Glad you solved it! Once you have the "O" ring in the proper place, hand tight should be all you need. That is what I have since I purchased the car 3 years and 25K miles ago. I change it at 5K mile intervals regardless and have never had a leak at the cap....knock, knock on wood.......Also, be sure to remember to push or seat the filter on the filter stick/cap all the way, just like in the pic that comes wit the filter. The first time changing the fluids I was a bit confused and did not want to push too hard on the filter, but after studying the instructions, I found that I needed to in order to get all of the "lines" lined up. I pushed a bit harder on the filter and it popped into place like it was supposed to and everything was fine. Been doing the same thing since.

I hope this all makes sense...It is SO much easier to show someone something than to try to verbalize it!

Sounds like you got it though!

Cheers,
KrzyFast