Fuel Filter Bleeding

[skyship007]

Originally Posted by bongodave

Sorry, incorrect. We had plenty of common rail diesels. I'm a time-served diesel mechanic. After market are fine. Just as most, if not all aftermarket products are fine, contrary to what owners are lead to believe.

What did you use for filters and how many years old were these vans ?? I doubt if you blocked fuel filters too often or were interested in classic car status without replacing half the injection system. I do use some ZF Sachs listed OEM equivalents, like Mann and Bosch, but they get changed well before their time.

[bongodave]

Originally Posted by skyship007

What did you use for filters and how many years old were these vans ?? I doubt if you blocked fuel filters too often or were interested in classic car status without replacing half the injection system. I do use some ZF Sachs listed OEM equivalents, like Mann and Bosch, but they get changed well before their time.

I can't even remember lol. They were dark blue with gold/yellow writing. They weren'tanything special, just cheapest contract from Partco.

We kept the smaller vehicles for 4 years, then 5, 6 & 7 respective of size. A good deal had done over 300,000 miles and we serviced them from new, till auction where they were mechanically sound and still sold.

We also used the same, multigrade oil in everything from bosses cars to Roadtrains. Never had an issue once. Only time we used genuine was when it was a body part specific to manufacturer.

Incidentally, early diesels or no less sensitive when you take the ridiculous precision behind injector pumps.

We could clearly see that depite these wagons having the worse kind of living hell thrashed out of them (stop start and loony drivers) they were always tip=top. Good servicing is so much more important the oem/genuine parts which can often be prohibitive for diy mechanics,resulting in waiting longer to affordbits.

I promise you, there is no test on earth which would better a Post Office van. To me, that'sall the proof I need that after-market is fine (as long as you don't go for 50p from h/k filters etc)

[skyship007]

Originally Posted by bongodave

I can't even remember lol. They were dark blue with gold/yellow writing. They weren'tanything special, just cheapest contract from Partco.

We kept the smaller vehicles for 4 years, then 5, 6 & 7 respective of size. A good deal had done over 300,000 miles and we serviced them from new, till auction where they were mechanically sound and still sold.

We also used the same, multigrade oil in everything from bosses cars to Roadtrains. Never had an issue once. Only time we used genuine was when it was a body part specific to manufacturer.

Incidentally, early diesels or no less sensitive when you take the ridiculous precision behind injector pumps.

We could clearly see that depite these wagons having the worse kind of living hell thrashed out of them (stop start and loony drivers) they were always tip=top. Good servicing is so much more important the oem/genuine parts which can often be prohibitive for diy mechanics,resulting in waiting longer to affordbits.

I promise you, there is no test on earth which would better a Post Office van. To me, that'sall the proof I need that after-market is fine (as long as you don't go for 50p from h/k filters etc)

The use your PO vans were subject to is very different to older Volvo diesels (Many of them are more than 10 years old), as many of the owners buy Fleabay or Halfraud special filters. Partco supply OEM equivalents which are OK filters and certainly good enough, IF they are changed before they block. From the engine point of view regular use is good news and Australia does not have cold start issues.

If you don't bulk buy filters, or get some kind of special discount, a good OEM equivalent like a Bosch costs almost the same as a Volvo filter from Rufe (Or perhaps Skandix) and if it did fail Volvo would consider paying for a new HP pump and injectors, so the few quid difference is worth paying for. It also looks good in the service records, as I know one sight of an "Orange can of death" often means the owner was using Halfrauds 10/40 oil.

The oil you use in Australia was probably Castrol Magnetec which is listed for most Volvo diesels in the alternative section by Castrol.

[Darlo 1]

Nothing wrong with Halfords 10/40 oil.

[bongodave]

Originally Posted by skyship007

The use your PO vans were subject to is very different to older Volvo diesels (Many of them are more than 10 years old), as many of the owners buy Fleabay or Halfraud special filters. Partco supply OEM equivalents which are OK filters and certainly good enough, IF they are changed before they block. From the engine point of view regular use is good news and Australia does not have cold start issues.

If you don't bulk buy filters, or get some kind of special discount, a good OEM equivalent like a Bosch costs almost the same as a Volvo filter from Rufe (Or perhaps Skandix) and if it did fail Volvo would consider paying for a new HP pump and injectors, so the few quid difference is worth paying for. It also looks good in the service records, as I know one sight of an "Orange can of death" often means the owner was using Halfrauds 10/40 oil.

The oil you use in Australia was probably Castrol Magnetec which is listed for most Volvo diesels in the alternative section by Castrol.

lol. I give up. Use liquid gold for all I care and spend all the money on OEM. It turns out tens of thousands of well-hammered Post Office vans are living on borrowedtime, and Volvo are different to any other vehicle, having chav taste in designer parts. lol

I'm off for an orange can of death.

[skyship007]

You can't get designer filters like the Mobil 1 or Amsoil long life ones in the EU without paying US postage, also they are only available for models imported to the US at present. Bosch were supposed to be selling their long life synthetic media filters in the EU last year, but nothing has happened yet.

It will be real good news if they do, as their oil filters are good for 30K km, so that means I can extend my oil only change interval from 10 to 15K km (Max normal listed by Castrol for my diesel). That will produce better results as my used oil analysis shows the oil is still working well at 10K km with Shell Helix Diesel Ultra 5/40 (Cheap at present) plus 150 ml of Ceratec in use at present.

Getting back on topic, if your local Indy or Iffylube is changing fuel filters for you, make 100% sure they know where the priming pump is (If one is fitted etc) AND check they have changed the seals.

For some odd reason there are better quality engine fluids and even additives available in the EU than the US, but we are behind the US in terms of selling more modern high performance oil and fuel filters, even though they are made in Germany.