HELP please FUEL FILTER CHANGE
 

Hello,

In middle of servicing car - got to the fuel filter part.

Its a 2004 D5 163 and has the plastic canister type filter with the papery insert thing you replace.

Haynes manual says to loosen the bleed screw on the bottom to drain the contents but the thing keeps on...well...bleeding!

Will it drain from the tank or should it only drain the contents of the canister at which point you then untwist the thing?

Obviously I don't want to take the canister off if its going to leak the contents of my tank onto the driveway.

Anyone that posts advice here will be a great help - need to pick the Mrs up from work in about 90 minutes and was hoping to get it all done!

Cheers

Chris

You wont drain the tank as it needs pressure from the in tank electrical pump to do that , just let it keep coming , shouldnt be more than a couple of litres if that .

Still bleeding out - probably about 2-3 litres now... sure you just let it keep going?

It's jacked up so it's level... where is the fuel coming from?!

Chris , have changed the fuel filter on mine with the gauge showing three quarters full and it stopped eventually , have had mine off three times and also removed the fuel pump from the tank about five times due to a failed pump and broken cross feed pipe . The filter is below the level of the tank but the feed pipe to it is coming from the output from the fuel pump and unless the pump motor is running or the engine mounted pump is sucking then the flow should stop eventually. My D5 has the paper filter with plastic cannister same as yours , you do have the ignition switched off ? You could also lift up the back seat and take the round cover off the right hand side and then remove the fuel outlet pipe ( the fuel pump has arrows showing flow direction ) and bung it up if its continuing to flow ( would take about five minutes ) but this shouldnt be necessary , have you got a full tank of fuel ?


'or the engine mounted pump is sucking then the flow should stop eventually' - sorry just reading this again I am obviously wrong , the engine mounted pump couldnt suck fuel through in this situation

i have just done mine and did not bother with the bleed screw if your carefull you can take it off without spilling all of it, change the filter then screw the canister back on with fuel in less cranking to fill the canister.
mike

Cheers for all the help

Finally managed to do it today.

We gave up yesterday as it just kept draining and draining - 3-4 litres probably in total. The car just started first time after that too. I drove it after that last night.

This morning we loosened the drain screw and it only bled about half a litre (!!)

So we took the canister off (mission in itself) and swapped the filter over. Job done.

Bizarre.

So thats Oil, Oil Filter, Air Filter, Fuel Filter and Cabin Filter changed at my inbetween service service. :) The next one has to be done at a VAT registered garage to keep my warranty direct warranty valid (ouch)

Thanks again.

Chris

Once the filter is changed can the fuel be bled through as normal or any special tools needed?

You can just crank it but it can take ages to fire. Best is sit for while with the key at pos II to let it prime itself. Filling the new filter with fuel helps as well.

Job done, cheers

Like S60chris i changed all filters with the oil change its now 9000 miles later and time to replace oil and filter but what else should i change this time, fuel filter? or leave these for every 36k?