Emptying water filter?

[Cheesetoast]

my friend said something the other day about a water filter in my 1.9td golf that i need to clean/empty usualy with each oil change.  Is this true and where is it?

[type53b_gtd]

A2's have an external water separator located under the back seat,  ahead of the fuel tank.
They also have a water separator integral with the fuel filter.

A3's do not have the external separator (AFAIK) and so only the water separator that is integral to the fuel filter needs draining.

The drain on the filter is the white plastic thing on the bottom of the filter.  A few times a year it is a good idea to turn it open until fuel runs out, then close it up again.  Do it more often if you let your tank run down below 1/2 regularly, or if you live in a climate where condensation is an issue.

The plastic tanks don't seem to be as much of an issue for condensation as the metal (A1) tanks.  Buying good fuel from a reputable high volume source is also a good idea.

Drew

[Cheesetoast]

ok i loosened it a bit and it hissed, no fuel/water came out tho, i decided to close it up.  now i have air in the fuel line by the looks of it, will it go away after a while or do i need to worry about it?  it's just a few bubbles

[type53b_gtd]

ok i loosened it a bit and it hissed, no fuel/water came out tho, i decided to close it up.  now i have air in the fuel line by the looks of it, will it go away after a while or do i need to worry about it?  it's just a few bubbles

It should go away after a short jaunt.  You only need to worry if air bubbles persist or you experiences misses or hard starting caused by air in the lines.

It may be that one of the check valves in the fuel lines is bad and is allowing fuel to fall back to the tank whgen you opened the drain.

Drew

[Cheesetoast]

Lately almost every cold start has been hard, chuigging like mad, smoke eitc for 5-10 seconds.  glow plugs as good and the fuse is good, warm starts are fine.  How would i find out if i had a bad check valve?

ok i loosened it a bit and it hissed, no fuel/water came out tho, i decided to close it up.  now i have air in the fuel line by the looks of it, will it go away after a while or do i need to worry about it?  it's just a few bubbles

It should go away after a short jaunt.  You only need to worry if air bubbles persist or you experiences misses or hard starting caused by air in the lines.

It may be that one of the check valves in the fuel lines is bad and is allowing fuel to fall back to the tank whgen you opened the drain.

Drew

[veghooligan]

I assumed that if I opened the petcock on the water seperator all the way I could drain my whole tank, which i need to do before running my new IP.  Will this drain the tank? I hope there's some check valve or somehting b/c I opened it all the way and I only got out about 5 gallons. I went to fill the tank with fresh diesel and I only poured in about 3 gallons before it overflowed! I was using a hand held diesel tank but that shouldn't make a difference?

what's up?

[jtanguay]

does your tank have that special flap? some jerry cans dont open the special flap.  i think its years 1990 and on that have it.. might be '91 and on.  hmmm  but if you say you managed to get 3 gallons in there, it sounds as if there is a lot of air in the tank that wants to come out, i would suggest propping the flap open while pouring so that the air can escape the tank.  

just a thought..

[veghooligan]

I don't know where that flap is that you're referring to.  There's the flap that's just a few inches into the fuel tank opening on the side of the car.  I put the spout of the jerry can in about 10 inches so i know the flap that's just a few inches in is up. No flap underneath or behind and the body panels that I'm aware of.

Here's something curious that happened though. When I filled the tank the diesel came up to teh top of the tank's input spout. I screwed the cap back on to close it and a rush of air went in. I unscrewed it and about then there was room for about a 1/2 gallon more, so I filled it. I did this a couple of times, but finally it wouldn't except anymore. I looked in my Bentley and found a diagram of the tank, with 2 expansion reseviours- was I filling these when I put the tank cap back on and heard air rushing in?

[srivett]

The gas cap pushes a little button in.  The button is to the left and around the threaded area of the filler tube.  I believe the purpose of this button is to keep the fuel from entering the expansion chamber but if you want an extra 100 km of range you can push that thing in to fill it up.  The drawback is that you could have a big mess if the temperature changes suddenly.

Steve

[veghooligan]

interesting.

what about draining it from the water seperator located under the car near the tank? Wouldn't this work? I mean i got a lot of fuel out of there already.