Hi, I'm a newbie here and trying to service my skoda fabia 1.4 16V engine code BBZ I recenlty purchased. I have been trying to suss out which fuel filter the car needs but they come in different lengths and with or without pressure regulator so I'm now totally confused which one to go for.... :S

Depends on if it's a 3 or 4 bar filter and if it's got two or three pipes on it.

Have a look at it, I bet it has a pressure regulator on the end of it and thus three pipes.

As above...even Skoda can't accuratly tell by reg no and have to physically see it!!!

The fuel filter is mounted under the car near the rear drivers door side.......it will either have a built in (fixed) regulator and have three pipes....or it will have a removable regulator and two pipes!......

Remember to get the air out by bleeding the injector rail (tells you in Haynes) and the screw that holds the plastic clamp for the filter is a ######## to remove as it rusts solid......also the pipe end fittings usually have oblong shaped bits that you press in to then unlock the fitting from the stub pipe on the filter.....

'young_grasshopper' -

Did you ever get round to changing this filter,and if so what was the type and part number, I've been meaning to do this for a few years but didn't have a cast iron way of determining which filter was required - using the replies to your posting should help things along nicely!

I've had an initial look under the car without jacking it up (lazy) and I've seen that it has a regulator connected to the fuel filter, so, looking at my ETOS parts list, it lists:- a filter with no associated pressure regulator, or an assembly that includes a filter and a connected regulator, or a filter which is part the previous assembly. Haynes, claims that all petrol engined cars except the ones which AWY engine code do have a regulator connected to the filter - and if its got a regulator then it will have a filter with two pipes at one end. So, is the advice to just get a filter by itself, or is the advice to get the same one with a regulator already fitted to avoid any problems with seperating the filter from the regulator?

Right, I've evenually got my local VW dealer to order in a filter for me, and I ordered in a new seal in case the original one was damaged on removal. Now the filter arrived okay but the spare seal is on "back order". Having had a look at the filter I've found that it comes complete with new seals - so that might explain why a spare seal is not readily available - ie no one ever needs them. One other thing, the supplied filter is "made in China" - I know that VAG has a strong presence in China so must accept that China needs to manufacture parts, but, if I had bought this off ebay, from the quality of the part and the graphics printed on it, I'd reckon that I had been sold a cheap copy - there is none of the usual VW Audi Seat Skoda branding, just VW AG!! I only hope that the seals will close up the errors of manufacture that could cause the filter element to get short circuited. If only I had known this before, I would have bought the same thing but from a German manufacturer (probably as fitted to the cars at the factory), from ECP and they tend to be in stock and offer both "filter" and "filter+regulator".

Here is something to think about, the rail is pressurised to 2.5 bars. How could you modify the regulator to make it pressurize the fuel more? ... Something I want to do when I get to it.

btw, the fuel pump can do 600cc/sec! I did not believe it myself, but it is in the manual and should be right. Just to be clear here, it did not say at which pressure it can do that so I assumed it is atmospheric because it would be massively oversized otherwise.

There seems to be two different pressure regulators, 3Bar and 4Bar - well that is what is written on my filter. So, if that is true then there will be two different part numbers available. Years ago, adjustable fuel pressure regulators did exist - and maybe for competition use there is one that fits the standard filter, but I would doubt that as competition cars would use different fuelling systems.

Take OEM 6Q0201051B (3 bar, with integrated pressure regulator). Or take some of aftermarket solutions from MANN- WK69/1, BOSCH- F026403008, KNECHT/MAHLE- KL156/1, for example. Those also have integrated 3 bar regulator.

For my '2007 Fabia with BBZ engine I took a.m.from Knecht.

And forget about "with or without integrated pressure regulator"- I think, Skoda turned to integrated fuel regulator for long time ago (despite, catalogue offers 2 solutions)- just like it's said in a.m.post.