Well, that was a task and a half.
Oil change and air filter were no hassle- done in 3/4 of an hour. The fuel filter is another matter entirely however.
The clearances are so tight and the fuel pipe clips so fiddly it took the best part of 2 hours.
The flexible hose from the air cleaner assembly which runs down the back of the engine to the turbo needs to come off. Not a huge job, but a wee bit fiddly to get a socket on the hose clip, which seems to be different to every other hose clip on the car at 7mm (the others are all 6mm).
With that out of the way, disconnect the big wiring connector attached to the from the the fuel filter housing mount, to get it out of the way. Disconnect the wiring connector from the top of the housing itself and try not to lose it down the back of the bracket, it's a bitch to get back up.
Next, unclip the fuel filter housing from the mount by sliding it upwards. This will give you false hope as it comes off easily. The small amount of extra room it gives is crucial to getting the fuel pipes off of the housing, which is the next stage.
The pipes have blue clips, both sides of which need to be depressed at the same time to let the pipe be taken off. Except that you can't see or feel one side of them and have to do it by ESP. I managed it eventually. Take the top pipe off first as if you remove the bottom one first, as I did, you end up with everything covered in diesel. With the pipes eventually off ( I did swear more times than I care to recall) you need to swivel the housing round in the bracket about a 1/6th of a turn so that neither fuel inlet or outlet is pressing against the bulkhead, but allowing the water bleed screw housing which sticks out in the same direction, catches the bracket and won't allow it to be pulled up. You need to push the metal A/C pipe back above the filter and then just brute force it out. Last thing is to remove the wiring plug from the bottom of the canister as you pull it up through the bracket once it's free.
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I did try to move the expansion tank to give better access, but even with it all freed off, it doesn't really want to go, so I put it back.
I then went to use the new filter replacement tool that i bought, to find that the filter canister doesn't fit the cup part. The bleed screw mentioned before is 180 degrees from where the tool thinks it should be. Thank goodness for the old B&D workmate- used that instead and the top part of the tool fits. The top bit is invaluable though and I doubt it would have been very easy to remove without it.
The filter that was in the car was all but destroyed. I seriously doubt that it was changed at the last service 12 months ago. It seemed to be starting to break down and was black like sump oil.
Putting the filter back in, having got it out, was much easier- took about 20 min to be able to start the car. Just remember to bleed the filter by switching theignitionon without starting for 10 x 10 sec bursts before attempting to start the car.
So all done bar the pollen filter, which I'll do tomorrow. It's a bitch of a job, but because of that I'll be doing it again next year as I wouldn't trust a garage to do it as they're likely not to bother. I just need a bigger sheet of cardboard to protect the drive next time. Sorry dear!
