Hi all

The online manual we bought is not the best. The actual changing of the filter looks straightforward enough but I'm concerned about air in the system. The filter is a sealed unit so it's either fill it before fitting or vacuum draw in. Question is, is it as easy as that? I would be grateful for advice from someone who has experience of this procedure on a diesel Focus. I've done cartridge filters in the past that can be filled but never a sealed unit. I have drawn fuel from the tank in the past but not sure if I can on this car. 

All advice welcomed!

Cheers

Paul

There's an electric lift pump on the 1.5 EcoBlue.  Just switching the ignition on and off a couple of times should fill the filter housing on these.

2 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

There's an electric lift pump on the 1.5 EcoBlue.  Just switching the ignition on and off a couple of times should fill the filter housing on these.

Hi 

Thank you for this. Do you know if the air will cause a problem? When you fit the filter and the battery and the rest of the gubbins back you will be left with air in the filter and maybe some of the pipework. Will this air push through and dissipate or should I leave the outflow pipe off (access permitting, I haven't looked yet) and turn the ignition on a few times?? This too could be awkward as the battery would need to be in and this gets in the way of the filter pipe connections which would obviously have to go back on after the priming?

I've heard horror stories on other models about trapped air in fuel lines. Need to be sure before I begin.

Thanks again.

By the way, is there anyone who would advise against using MANN filters for this job?? It's about half the price of the Ford item. (Ford item £135 with the vat and a small discount I get).

 

A small amount of air shouldn't cause a problem, it will just get pushed through the system by the lift pump. 

I haven't done it one of these but have done it on VW's and Peugeots with lift pumps.  It's only the Fords without a lift pump that I had to manually prime by hand.  If you're concerned, you could try to fill the filter as much as possible with a syringe before fitting.

The Mann filter is probably fine though I would avoid any unbranded ones as the quality does vary on these.

Great stuff thanks.

I'll get the syringe out! 

I was concerned a manual vacuum may cause problems with the lift pump.

Cheers