Came back from Wales last night, through centre of London, went over a pot-hole and started smelling diesel. Worked out it was me and pulled over/called AA. Turns out the the Fuel Water Sensor had been over-tightened into the filter and the jar of the pot-hole had pulled the plastic thread apart

AA man super-glued it back together and re-fitted it along with some sealant and its got me home fine. Question is - is this something that I can simply/quickly do myself without getting completely covered in diesel? If so, what sort of tightness should the thread be so as a) it doesn't leak and b) won't over tighten the thread and have it happen again.

Filter is new so am hoping the sealant used won't make it u/s when I get the new sensor.

Credit where it's due - that AA guy diagnosed the problem and then presumably laid under the car in the cold and wet with diesel dripping on his head to fix it

If you have the later type fuel filter then the sensor looks like this:


If it is just the yellow threaded bit that stripped your filter should be fine. When refitting mine after a filter change I've just done it up finger tight and then one more 'flat' with an open ended spanner.

Easy enough to do yourself if you can jack up the driver's side a bit but you'll get some diesel spill. Not much fun in this weather. 2008 MY Java Black TDV8 HSE

Got a replacement at a good price from Dan@Duckworths and popped it round my local back street MOT station. Up on the ramp, bolts/covers off, filter out, sensor swapped, all back together - 7 minutes

I was so chuffed that I took the car off to the Eastern European car wash for its first inside/outside clean in 3 years - got my money's worth after all the off-roading & mucking around in fields