Replacing the fuel filter is a fairly easy job requiring a minumum of tools. It will probably take you about an hour. removed the rear right wheel to give me a bit more clearance, and did most of the work with my head in the wheel arch. If you’ve got a ramp it would be easy to do it without removing the wheel. Procedure:
- With the engine running, remove fuse 23 - this is the fuel pump fuse. A few seconds later the engine will cut out, but you will have reduced the pressure in the pipes. Now switch off the ignition.
- Jack up and remove the right rear wheel.
- Loosen the two hose clips.
- Unscrew the 10mm bolt holding the fuel filter to the car
- Pull off the two hoses - you will lose some petrol at this point. Most of it will be in the fuel filter itself, so have the two protective end caps off your new filter ready, you can plug the leak with them.
- Note which way round the old filter was
- Remove the metal clip from the old filter, and the rubber band. Under there you should find an arrow indicating the flow direction. You did note which way round the filter went, didn’t you? The new one needs to be fitted in the same direction. In mine the flow was from the wheel towards the centre of the car.
- Fit the rubber band and clip around the new filter
- Bolt the new filter to the car, and attach the hoses to it. New hose clips would be nice.
- Replace the wheel, lower the car, tighten the wheel bolts
- Replace the fuel pump fuse
- Start the car - it will take a while longer than normal as it has to refill the fuel lines
Here is a picture of the underside of the car, showing the location of the fuel filter. You are looking up at the right rear wheel.
