Water Seperator

[NevadaVandal]

2001 Golf TDI. Is the water separator and fuel filter one and the same? Water accumulates at the fuel filter?? Thnks all.

 

[Windex]

There is a tap at the bottom of the fuel filter to drain any accumulated water.

It's the whit thing at the bottom - unscrew it slightly and any water will drain out.

 

[jettawreck]

Used to check/drain at each oil change. Never had any water present. Gave up and haven't checked for water in years.

 

[AndyBees]

What Jettawreck said up there ^^^^^^

I've been driving VW diesels over 42 years. I gave up draining the fuel filter for water after the first or second attempt (found no more than a drop or two) .................. Total waste of time in my opinion!
However, by design, the filter is a good separator!

 

[teddibear]

I have a 2003 volkswagen golf tdi I was also wondering this cause the manuel looks to say to drain every 20,000 miles but I just got my fuel filter replaced with the oil change. So does it need to be drained

 

[Vince Waldon]

When your 2003 Golf first rolled off the assembly line diesel was not always easy to track down and often of dubious quality and/or age. As a result, draining the lower part of the fuel filter on a regular basis was good preventative maintenance.

Today's diesel is much better and I've never found any water in my filters when I change 'em.

In your case, if you just got a new filter there's very little chance water has already built up.

 

[oilhammer]

The older diesels had a water separator underneath the car, with a sensor that turned the glow lamp on, I think it had a wire going to the glow plug relay. I never had mine (in my '91) ever come on, but I dutifully drained a bit from the lower water separator at every service. When the TDIs came about, they did away with this extra little feature.

 

[Powder Hound]

Like the others above, I have never found water in my separator and gave up checking it long ago. About 22 years ago, actually. And there's good reasons for that. Mostly I think it is the popularity of diesel pickups and the proliferation of new tankage and improved procedures and equipment at all the fuel stops across the country have resulted in good fuel availability as well as higher quality fuel all over that has resulted in the current situation where bad fuel is the anomaly.

In addition, many of us, myself included, use fuel additives that contain an ingredient that will cause entrained water not to drop out of the fuel but rather run through the system instead of accumulate in some location like the fuel filter. Or the tank. Or rather, the fuel filter after accumulating in the tank and then get picked up and pumped to the filter.

Anyway, in spite of the universally good environment I have encountered, I still won't buy fuel from my favorite spot if I see a tanker truck dropping fuel at that moment. If I really need fuel and there's no other station immediately available, I might go inquire as to whether they're dropping into the diesel tanks right then, but usually I just go elsewhere or wait until another day.

Cheers,

PH

 

[AndyBees]

I have a Yanmar excavator that I keep fuel for it in five gallon containers like most of us do for our lawn mowers.

My practice is to never pour the entire "contents" into the tank. Condensation as well as what might come from the service station is settled in the bottom. My ol' 8N Ford Tractor has a clear bowl separator. I can always see when it is nearing full and spill-over to the filter and carburetor.

Anyway, I pour the left-over contents from the empty container(s) into a clear jug and let it sit for a few days. Then, I pour off the fuel into another container. I pour the left-over water/fuel mix around the fence posts along my fenced vegetable garden.

Believe it or not, I still have some diesel fuel from the Hurricane Katrina days........ 2005! .... 19 years old. I've gradually added it to my TDIs, Dodge Cummins and the Yanmar until it is almost gone!

 

[John Wesley Hardin]

I have a Yanmar excavator that I keep fuel for it in five gallon containers like most of us do for our lawn mowers.

My practice is to never pour the entire "contents" into the tank. Condensation as well as what might come from the service station is settled in the bottom. My ol' 8N Ford Tractor has a clear bowl separator. I can always see when it is nearing full and spill-over to the filter and carburetor.

Anyway, I pour the left-over contents from the empty container(s) into a clear jug and let it sit for a few days. Then, I pour off the fuel into another container. I pour the left-over water/fuel mix around the fence posts along my fenced vegetable garden.

Believe it or not, I still have some diesel fuel from the Hurricane Katrina days........ 2005! .... 19 years old. I've gradually added it to my TDIs, Dodge Cummins and the Yanmar until it is almost gone!

Looks like the Govt and certain employers are suggesting their employees use LSD and Psilocybin, perhaps you could recycle your old diesel fuel so they can ingest it to see if they experience any life altering experiences that may be beneficial to their job performance

 

[agent_jwa]

Like the others above, I have never found water in my separator and gave up checking it long ago. About 22 years ago, actually. And there's good reasons for that. Mostly I think it is the popularity of diesel pickups and the proliferation of new tankage and improved procedures and equipment at all the fuel stops across the country have resulted in good fuel availability as well as higher quality fuel all over that has resulted in the current situation where bad fuel is the anomaly.

In addition, many of us, myself included, use fuel additives that contain an ingredient that will cause entrained water not to drop out of the fuel but rather run through the system instead of accumulate in some location like the fuel filter. Or the tank. Or rather, the fuel filter after accumulating in the tank and then get picked up and pumped to the filter.

Anyway, in spite of the universally good environment I have encountered, I still won't buy fuel from my favorite spot it I see a tanker truck dropping fuel at that moment. If I really need fuel and there's no other station immediately available, I might go inquire as to whether they're dropping into the diesel tanks right then, but usually I just go elsewhere or wait until another day.

Cheers,

PH

ive also never found a single drop of water in my filters, i just drain them out into a glass jar and wait a bit. there's never been anything, i think the fuel station is adding alcohol to the diesel or something to keep the fuel dry. 15-20 years ago when i was driving truck i was constantly draining the water separator. it would have like 8oz of water in it within a couple weeks, i burned around 40 gallons a day ~250/week. so 8oz in 500gal of fuel is almost nothing. 20,000 miles in my car is about 500gal and there's not a single drop.