Friday Night, air in filter, plunger not working

Well it's Friday night and today decided to service the D22. Thought I would do the fuel filter as well, though not ready yet I tend to overservice?

Well all goeds well until I try to get the air out of the filter and after pumping the plunger a couple hundred times I realise it doesn't seem to be working, and damn, my other car in BEHIND the D22.

So tomorrow I think I will walk down to the service station with a bottle, get some diesel, come back, fill the filter and try starting again.

Has anybody any other ideas??

There's a bleed valve on the fuel pump, if it's a mechanical pump? Open that up and pump the plunger till your Nav make mess on floor.

Don't bother going to the servo, get it out of the bottom of your tank, there's a drain. Might have to take the bash plate off though, model dependent.

You could also try opening the water drain on the bottom of the filter, or undoing a fuel line DOWNSTREAM of the filter and plunging.

how did you do it ?

usually i clamp the hose to stop it draining back. after fitting filter leave outlet hose off and then pump primer till fuel comes out of the filter. then put outlet hose back on. pump till hard but even then soon as you start it starves of fuel for a sec. prime it a bit more and its fine.

do not try to use the motor to suck fuel through. that can stuff these pumps.

if its drained back to tank you can either use an electric pump or use compressed air in the fuel tank to push the fuel up.

Thanks guys, think I will have a bourbon and think about it, Great forum by the way.

sometimes have the same drama on trucks, either pressurise the tank with compressed air or use an electric pump plumbed into the fuel pickup line at the tank.

as tweak'e stated don't crank motor too muck without fuel, if urs is a 2.5 commonrail diesel you will do expensive damage.

my suggestion would be to remove the filter, refill it & refit. crack bleed nipple and pump primer for a few minutes or until steady stream of diesel flows out. if this doesn't happen after a minute or two of pumping, remove filter again & refill and repeat.

in my experience you don't usually need to prime system if new filter is fitted full of diesel, i never fit diesel filters dry and try not to leave fuel filters off for long so fuel can't drain back.

weird? i changed my filter over for the first time and all i did was:

undo the bolts
unscrew both ends
put the new filter on (screw both ends in)
bolt it back on
and hit the primer for 20 secs?

then it went hard, started the car and all good!

Just moved to General Tech, easier for people to find this type of thread in the future.

Good info guys, welcome to the forum TSS.

Thanks Guys, well will start in a moment once I have the coffee as a starter

All done guys, I got real investive actually. I had a $20 car pump so I wrapped the end in an old cloth then taped it up into a cone with some electrical tape, fiddled a bit and had it fit the fuel filler cap. Turned it on, it only needed about 3lb pressure to force the fuel to the pump. I then cracked a injector line, and while limited pressure cranked it over, first start. Thinking that is so simple it will be aprt of my "outback kit" for the future.

nice fix

last time i did mine i had to put the whole filter asembly in the vice and use a wench and brute force to get it off !
most vechiles i have you have to remove the filter assembly just to get at the filter. with some there is enough flex in the hoses so you can unbolt the assembly then put it back on upside down. that way the bolts hold the filter head while you unscrew the filter.

its also a LOT easier to pump up the fuel with oulet fuel hose off. with the ZD30 motor if you pump with hoses on you will put air into the injection pump which is not good for it.