Changing fuel filters on diesel engines

Hi Spinifex , how long is a piece of string? if you were gauranteed clean fuel every tankfull it could stay there for the life of the vehicle as they don't degrade from age just filling up with crud . The normal recommended life would be about 30 - 40 Ks
KKs that is . This distance would be an average time when the average vehicle filled up with an average amount of diesel that would have an average amount of crap in it. get the drift , I'm just an average kind a guy!
Iwould go with the 30k to 40 K and if you suspect crappy fuel change more often.

Cheers Dave L.

Spinifex
I change the filter on my 3 ltr Patrol around every 20,000 ks; recomendation by Nissan.

Rob

I do mine every 80,000k or more frequent after a outback trip where the chance of contaminated fuel is greater.

For the price $60 or there abouts carry a spare.

If you don't use it on the trip you eventually will during service intervals of your choice.

Toyota intervals are 20k.

Mine also has a cartridge prefilter that gets done every 10k.

Cheers
Phil

Got a racq mechanic around the corner and he says on a Toyota every 20,000 or there about. But I went to birdsville and stayed at roseberth station and I asked Jeff how often he changed the fuel filter on the homestead diesel generator and he said they have not changed it in 20 years because the fuel they buy was so clean I think they get theirs from Adelaide. So how clean is the fuel where we buy it dags?

My Jackaroo manual says 10K i think - but when I do that and give them a good shake out there is virtually nothing in them - with clean fuel they look as though they could do many more km - strangely, the genuine filter for the Jack is under $20 - so it doesn't matter a lot - I always have a couple of spares anyway.

Hi Spinifex,
Letting any fuel filter go past 10,000klm is just asking for trouble.I am a Diesel Fitter by trade and also deliver bulk diesel for a living, believe me there is no such thing out there as CLEAN DIESEL.Because of the nature of diesel and the fact that you are always pumping hot diesel back to your tank there will always be a certain amount of moisture in it. A filter every 10000 is very cheap insurance. How many people wipe the bowser nozzle clean before they put it in the tank, there's more contamination going in.
Cheers Rossco.

For what its worth ,tojo say 20k , I get a set of the 3 filters [air- fuel- oil] for the 80series turbo diesel from a mob on ebay sent from W.A. to my door in Qld for the princely sum of $40 ,,cant buy same from dealer for less than double / three times that so at that price I do all 3 every 5k. tad overkill but dont hurt.

I put a CAV filter on - This is the first point of fuel delivery after the tank, then it goesn to the main fuel filter.

I change the CAV filter every 10,000K's and it is fairly muck filled by then. The main filter every 20,000K's - Noticed it isn't as bad.

I reckon The CAV does a good job and the filter costs around $7.00

A bit of "Moreys" every 3rd tank or so helps keep the engine in better health as well.

Vinnie

I have a Maverick 1992 4.2 Diesel - It is in great shape (touch wood) it has done 175,000K's - I believe in the rule of servicing it regular.

I use the Woolies fuel and have been for around 5 years where available and find no problems with it. I have noticed that if I run Shell brand diesel it doesn't perform as good and the occassional puff of black smoke appears on standing start off.

I agree though that the diesel sold in Australia is poor quality compared to European countries where diesel powered vehicles are becoming prominent on thier roads in comparison to petrol.

The reason for filtration is to restrict contaminants and therefore should be changed regularly.

Thanks for all the replies

Every 20,000ks the filter for a TD5 from Karcraft is for 1 ESR4686 FILTER - FUEL - L/ROVER DEF+DISC 2 TD5 (COOPERS) $34.36, so cheap enough to do it on a regular basis.

Baz.