Ordered new fuel filter from Duckworths and found Bobby's helpful pictures on the forum showing how to access the filter. Couldn't find detailed fitting instructions anywhere so here is an attempt. Was a little apprehensive about changing it as a previous poster suggested this would be difficult or impossible without the vehicle being on a lift but decided to have a look under the car and see for myself. All I did was put it in off-road height and put axle stands under the chassis rails for safety.

For a 10 stone jockey like me it was easy to squeeze underneath. Removing the five (not six) bolts securing the plastic transmission cover was simple just using a 10mm socket. This revealed the small vertically mounted heat shield round the fuel filter which was easily dealt with by removing the securing bolts again with a 10mm socket a 10mm combi spanner also helped here owing to the restricted access. It was a shock to see that the big number on the old filter ( 7H32-9C296-AB) didn't match that on the new one but it looked the same except that the new one had a black plastic drain plug screwed into it.

I guessed this is a multiple application part since the filter has pictograms on it showing removal of the drain plug/water sensor from the old filter and installation onto the new filter. It was easy to disconnect the water sensor wire with one hand and then twist the old filter about a quarter of a turn anticlockwise at which point it dropped out of the mount. Then had to carefully manoeuvre the old filter out by turning it on its side taking care not to damage the attached drain tap and sensor. A fair bit of diesel spills out but I couldn't see how to avoid this fairly unpleasant step.

With the old filter removed it was pretty obvious to see how to unbolt the drain tap assembly (10mm open ended spanner) and install it on the new filter at the same time replacing the two sealing rubber 'O' rings which come with the new filter. The black drain tap was discarded (must be for another application).

There seems to be some disagreement on the forum about the necessity of filling the new filter with diesel so I figured it couldn't do any harm and filled it using a small funnel. Installation was the reverse of removal as they say in all the best manuals but I found it was necessary to position myself directly under the filter and get my forearm vertical in order to push hard enough on the filter and then turn it clockwise to lock into position. Its a bit hard to grip the shiny new filter with diesel all over it so a piece of abrasive paper wrapped around it helped here to enable a firm grip whilst twisting. Then just a matter of reconnecting the sensor and reinstalling the heat shield and transmission cover.

Turned the ignition key to position II to start the fuel pump and waited until it stopped. Then started up fine with no need for any bleeding. Hope this helps any other newbies like me doing their own servicing. 2008 MY Java Black TDV8 HSE


Last edited by Paddi on Tue Aug 14 2012 4:03pm. Edited 2 times in total

great write up mate

great tutorial

one thing:

better not filling it, as the diesel that you pours into it is unfiltered yet.

if you want the filter filled yes or yes, do it throught the input holes, this way the diesel will be filtered and ther will be no problem.

this applies too to the spin-on oil filters: NEVER fill them trought the center hole. if so,throught the outer holes (but if the filter have a anti drain valve you could not do this.

the best to avoid this problems is not filling the filters and let the pumps do their job, and of course letting by side the dry start...nothing is perfect, but think that you do it every time you change the oil filter as the spigot is a drain plug!

so......