2011 jetta tdi fuel filter

Hi folks,

I need to change my fuel filter but I don't have the scanning tool to purge the system after I put the cover back on so I'm in a bit of a bind. My job is 110 miles away and I'm getting up at 3 am and on the road by 3:30. I havn't found the time to make an appointment at a dealer. It's something that I've been putting off because I've just been changing the engine oil myself every 10k. I'm the 2nd owner of the car and I think the filter has 50k miles on it. I really should do it now but I'm driving to Arizona Wednesday for Thanksgiving.

I bought a Mann filter at NAPA yesterday, pn PU936/1x. This filter is bigger than the oil filter so I think I'm in no real danger with the milage I have on the filter in the car.

I'm 90% convinced after reading all the threads here that I can just pop the cover off, replace the filter and o ring, top off the canister with diesel and put the cover back on and the car will start. Maybe I need to turn the ignition on and off 5 or 6 times.

But if I'm wrong and the car doesn't start, I'll have to take my Suburban to work and it has problems of its own besides getting 14 mpg.

I think I'll eventually get the Ross Tech system to go with my laptop but for right now I either take the risk of doing the swap myself at home, leaving the old filter where it is, or finding the time to take it to a dealer here in California or in Arizona.

any thoughts?

thanks

the ignition will not do anything. (except give your wrist some excercize

I would go ahead and get the ross-tech VCDS cable. Now.

why do you think it has 50,000 miles on the filter?

and plenty of folks will tell you fill and go is fine. (just not me)

^^^
I've done it several times this way without issue, just be careful when removing the canister cover as it likes to pop off spilling fuel.
Pry it gently and you should be fine, refill it with fuel if you have some on hand, tighten everything up and start the engine.

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

meerschm said:

the ignition will not do anything. (except give your wrist some excercize

I would go ahead and get the ross-tech VCDS cable. Now.

why do you think it has 50,000 miles on the filter?

and plenty of folks will tell you fill and go is fine. (just not me)

Click to expand...

I bought the car with 24k miles and I never changed the fuel filter. VW paid for the first three services and the fuel filter should have been done at the 20k service. I took it in for the last free service at 30k and changed the oil myself at 40k. I took it in again at 50k but the 50k doesn't include the fuel filter. I should have had them do it then but I was still getting familiar with this car. I changed the oil and airfilter myself at 60k. I commute about 1100 miles a week just going to work and I'm taking a class at the local community college (Solidworks). I'm putting a lot of miles on the car really fast and last week I printed out VW's maintenance schedule and really started going through it.

Good news is I don't have to worry about the timing belt until 130k, bad news is I'm way over on the fuel filter.

My last car was a 86 Porsche 944 with a broken odometer so I just made up the schedule as I saw fit.

that was easy

the car started right up without a hiccup

I filled the filter bowl up to maybe 3" to the top then dropped the new filter in and let it settle and then put some more fuel in

I was having problems getting the top on by hand so I used a couple paper towels to take some fuel out a couple times and then got the filter top on with the help of the screws

a light hand torque and then got in and fired her up

ran it for a minute, up to 2000 rpm a few times,

shut it down and washed the car and the few spots where diesel spilled on something

took it for a drive around the block

check the air pressure of the tires

I'm ready for the Thanksgiving weekend

thanks everyone



I'm still going to get the Ross tech so I can have a new gadget to play with

Good job, easy wasn't it?

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

yea

I was sweating having to call a flatbed to take it to a dealer. I'd feel like the biggest moron if I had to do that.

but it turns out I was worried about nothing much

the old filter didn't look all that bad, even with 50k miles

I'll probably adjust my fuel filter change interval to 30k instead of the factory 20k