I'm posting in the hope I can save some of you a bit of money where unfortunately I've had to fork out.

Over the weekend I had one or two things on the car I decided to do myself, this was fit a new vac hose, fit a replacement secondary air pump, fit the RARB and fit a new fuel filter. Everything was going fine until the fuel filter bit.

The push-on clip at the front end of the filter came off but as it did so, the tip of the little metal pipe in the old filter sheared off inside the clip (they're obviously made of cheese). No problem I thought, I'll just pull it out with some long nose pliers. No joy there. So it was going to have to be drilled out. Obviously not on the car though what with all the fuel about... so I sliced through the fuel hose and took the section of hose and clip up the shed to drill the bit of old filter out. I then re-assembled everything and joined the cut hoses with a metal hose joiner and two petrol pipe clips. That was until I found there's over 4 bar of pressure in those hoses and I was sitting on a timebomb! So into the garage it went yesterday and now £128 lighter for having a new set of fuel feed and return hoses fitted (£68 for all hoses, unfortunately they don't come individually only as a set) and 1 hour labour.

I read a couple of VW forums and it seems if you have a similar thing happen to the clip at the back end of the filter you are looking at £££s to repair it as the fuel tank has to be drained and removed to replace the back feed and return hoses.

I would say if you are considering replacing your filter don't take the risk - get a garage to do it, that way if it does go wrong it's their problem!

Edited 9 September, 201015 yr by chicken_eyebrow

ouch, glad I got mine done at the garage then

Dam that's unlucky. Done mine twice in the four years I've had it and never had a problem. Was fitting the rear anti roll bar a pain as I'm gonna finish fitting mine tonight as i ran out of light last night. Just need the brackets over the bar and on to the axle. Bit of a fight so far so was looking for tips.

Yeah ARB was a pain, took twice as long as it should've done!

2 tips

To fit the droplinks put a jack and block of wood under the trailing arms and support them while you slide the old bolts out and slide the new ones (for the droplinks) in otherwise you'll spend ages trying to line up the holes in the bottom arm with the damper.

For the bits that hold the bar to the rear beam, you may need to bend either the brackets or the u-shaped bolts in a vice to get them to all fit together as the holes don't really line up properly. It's best to make sure they all fit together off the car rather than trying to force them together while they're round the rear beam (as the gouges on my hands will testify )

You had a bad experience ther buddy,

Changed mine twice now. I agree you have to be careful as it is not that easy to see how the plastic clips come undone. (push in type)

I think the problem is skoda dont specify a change interval for the filter so when people finally change them they are corroded & the metal is brittle & as in your case my fail. If people changed them every 2 years this problem may not happen.I had no problem replacing mine earlier this year,mine was original 6 years old & 120k. Glad you have got yours sorted now,i wouldnt of cut the fuel line in the 1st place though,as you found out its under a lot of preasure when engine running & to try & join it up maybe isnt the best practice.

Unlucky! When I was reading how-to's on mk4 forums, I read that the replacement lines are insanely expensive, so to be extra gentle with the clips, and figure out how they work beforehand. So after having a good read up and having a good look at the clips, they just popped off and on easily. The only problem I had with doing the filter was getting the old corroded hose clip off the filter! Took ages to break it off.

Glad you got it sorted in the end. I think the opposite with getting garages to do it for you! They would probably break it, then bodge it together with some tape or something! I have zero trust......

Yeah it was the original filter on mine so had been on there over 136k miles

I'd read the stuff in the VW forums about being careful with the clips and I was ok with the rear clip it's just the metal was so weak on the front one it snapped off :(

I'll be checking the car when I get it back tonight as this is the first time I've used this garage but it was recommended by a couple of other Brisky members so hoping the work is ok - especially as it's fuel lines!

Bad luck mate. :|

I guess i was fortunate that my filter appears to have been replaced in 2007, so was in pretty good order, but did find the clips a pain until i worked out how the clip bit worked.

I'd be interested to know what local garage you used as most of the local ones to me i either don't trust from experience or from other people's.

At least it is sorted now and next time should be more of a doddle.

I'd be interested to know what local garage you used as most of the local ones to me i either don't trust from experience or from other people's.

John Bowles VW & Audi Specialists. Ant (one of the members from Tonbridge) and his girlfriend use them all the time.

Funny you should say, I just did mine this morning/afternoon, only problem I had was the corrosion around the worm clip thing, took about half an hour to work the thing loose. And for some reason the car forgot it had an electric fuel pump when I tried reconnecting the battery before putting the fuel pump fuse back in, stupid thing. Had to disconnect the battery for a few mins and reconnect it before it would start.

Car's done 118k and is nearly 8 years old but the old fuel filter didn't break. I guess it's just luck of the draw and how hard you try to remove the pipes. Also it's the 2.0 but I guess the filters will be the same.

John Bowles VW & Audi Specialists. Ant (one of the members from Tonbridge) and his girlfriend use them all the time.

Yep, these are one of a few that i've used for my previous Audi and current Octavia and have felt fairly happy with. Really nice blokes, and fairly reasonable pricing. However i still have had a couple of minor reservations with them following the last service they did.

There is also Martin Volks Werks across the road. Haven't used them, but he's been there quite a while, so i reckon may be worth a try next time i need something sorted (not too soon i hope)

I did this on my old octy and snapped the pipe on the old filter.

Simple fix, get a self tapping screw and screw into the bore of the snapped pipe, grab hold of the end of the screw with some pliers and depress the clip. Should come out with no trouble if the screw thread is the right size!