Water Seperator
- Thread starter dcc
- Start date
Airplane MD
Veteran Member
Depends on your setup dcc. Some of the older models hade a drain at the bottom of the filter. Newer stuff requires filter removal. I wonder if there is a mod out there to put a drain on the newer PD engines. Seems like a step backward as far as I'm concerned. The dealer gets close to $70 to perform this "service".
tomo366
TDI Lifer, Member #68
My Mistake......The plug is underneath on the filter.I have goten any water out of any of my TDI's in 7 years I have own them
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pruzink
Veteran Member
The concensus in here has been it isn't necesary
There have been other posts in here about whether or not it is necesary to do this task. Most people that have done it never found any accumulation of water so the concensus was that it wasn't necesary. There was an old post with pictures of 2 differant designs of the internals of the fuel filter, I guess that one of them did a better job of removing water. I have an A4 so I'm not sure what the filter on an A5 looks like, but at the very bottom of the filter there is a white plastic valve for draining off the water. I'm pretty sure that you would need to remove the filter to open and close the valve, being as that you need to be very careful not to crack the plastic thermostatic valve that goes into the fuel filter and that the O-rings are always a potential source of air in leakage, I would have to agree that it is one of those things better left alone. I replaced my stock fuel filter with the Cat 2 micron filter which doesn't even have a water drain off valve on it. In the winter I do always add an anti-gel to my fuel, most of them have a mechanism to keep water in suspension to allow it to pass harmlessly through the fuel system.
There have been other posts in here about whether or not it is necesary to do this task. Most people that have done it never found any accumulation of water so the concensus was that it wasn't necesary. There was an old post with pictures of 2 differant designs of the internals of the fuel filter, I guess that one of them did a better job of removing water. I have an A4 so I'm not sure what the filter on an A5 looks like, but at the very bottom of the filter there is a white plastic valve for draining off the water. I'm pretty sure that you would need to remove the filter to open and close the valve, being as that you need to be very careful not to crack the plastic thermostatic valve that goes into the fuel filter and that the O-rings are always a potential source of air in leakage, I would have to agree that it is one of those things better left alone. I replaced my stock fuel filter with the Cat 2 micron filter which doesn't even have a water drain off valve on it. In the winter I do always add an anti-gel to my fuel, most of them have a mechanism to keep water in suspension to allow it to pass harmlessly through the fuel system.
vw4life
Veteran Member
Is there some confusion here? Seems there are mk5 guys talking here- this is the passat. My replacement fuel filters for my B5.5 have little white screws on the bottom- I plan to use them.
bigEZ
Veteran Member
the b5.5's do indeed have water separators in the form of a white stopper on the bottom of the filter. to drain, you need to remove the filter from the housing and open the stopper, draining into a clear jar. and contrary to what some newbies think, the water "separator" is not a place where only water collects; it is just an opening to drain the fuel filter. water, if present, will appear as clear drops that do not mix with the diesel in the jar.
do not bother with draining the water separator. unless you are fueling at very seedy places, you will not find any water. just replace the filter every 20k.
do not bother with draining the water separator. unless you are fueling at very seedy places, you will not find any water. just replace the filter every 20k.
snapdragon
Veteran Member
The last filter I bought in July had no tap on the bottom!
Maybe they have deleted it, or gave me a filter meant for the latest model?
I'm not bothered, there was never any water in there, and I'd rather just replace it if I'm going to the trouble of scraping my knuckles checking it.
Maybe they have deleted it, or gave me a filter meant for the latest model?
I'm not bothered, there was never any water in there, and I'd rather just replace it if I'm going to the trouble of scraping my knuckles checking it.
bigEZ
Veteran Member
go to this link:
http://pics.tdiclub.com/video/cincitdi/index.html
and download the fuel filter change video. it is for an a4, but pretty much everything is the same except for the location of the filter and the screw holding the clamp (on the b5.5 it is a 12-point star, or xzn, bit; i think a torx works). it is not hard to do at all.
http://pics.tdiclub.com/video/cincitdi/index.html
and download the fuel filter change video. it is for an a4, but pretty much everything is the same except for the location of the filter and the screw holding the clamp (on the b5.5 it is a 12-point star, or xzn, bit; i think a torx works). it is not hard to do at all.
tomo366
TDI Lifer, Member #68
My Mistake!! I sold my B5.5 Passat and yes it has a Drain valve my new A5 Jetta does notSmokerr said:
No, you should check it per the book (10K?, 5K woudl have to look).
You can get one bad slug, and you want to get it out of there if you did, so the next bad slug has someplace to sit. You never know. If it was clear you could see yes or no, its not, and the warrenty calls for that to be checked.
You can get one bad slug, and you want to get it out of there if you did, so the next bad slug has someplace to sit. You never know. If it was clear you could see yes or no, its not, and the warrenty calls for that to be checked.