The wife was driving our Monte yesterday and a warning light came on, engine in limp mode, apparently the light was on last week too. Reset when engine switched off...

So today off to the dealer, for diagnostics

The verdict low fuel pressure, which led to the tech suggesting the fuel filter is more than likely at fault and suggested a new one fitted.

Now the car is at 27k miles, fuel filter recommended replacement schedule is 60k

Service manager blamed sub standard supermarket fuel...

Now i had a bit of a rant and think its out of order that it needs replacing at half he recommended miles and wasn't covered by warranty as it's a serviceable item, but for the sake of £32 i paid up and went on my way, though i did make them give me the old filter and may take the matter up with skoda uk

So my question is, has anyone else had to replace their fuel filter earlier than schedule? And did you get the same story?

Is this a common fault, i did a search in here but couldn't find anything

Fuel Filters a bit like Fuses, a safety device to save on more expensive damage.

£32 is not that cheap though, damn expensive actually. (£21.72 inc VAT)

 

Hopefully someone will know about the subject.

 

george

Morrison's fuel used by any chance?

Yes Clark, it's not unheard of. Thankfully, the filter in your car is just doing it's job. Somewhere you have been picking up dirty fuel and the filter has been collecting it. To be clear, it's not just dirt, but water too. That's it's job. The filter is a 'consumable' and is not a warranty item unless it falls apart in use. No warranty will cover a filter against getting partially blocked (by dirt or water or both) due to it doing it's job. £32 is not too bad and is what I paid on my last diesel VAG. However, the main cause of picking up dirty fuel is fueling while a garage is taking on new fuel or just after. This stirs up the crud in the bottom of their tanks, including water. This gets sucked up into the pump you are using and ends up in your tank. Too much water in the fuel filter is also another reason the fuel pressure can fall. Many filter units have a valve to open to let the water out at service intervals. Diesel contains a lot of water which must not get to the injectors otherwise it can destroy the injector tips by cracking them. It also cause failure of the high pressure pump. Supermarket fuel was certainly the main culprit just a while ago for being the dirtiest fuel going, and often blocked filters. It was so bad at one time that Ford Cars and Ford Commercial along with Vauxhall and some others were threatening legal action against the supermarkets over failed fuel pumps and blocked filters during warranty periods caused by dirty supermarket fuel.

Dirty supermarket fuel is a myth, if anything it should be cleaner due to the turnover. All dispensing fuel pumps have filters.

The quality of supermarket fuels (due to minimum additives) may be debatable but not the cleanliness.

Could it be the car had been misfuelled? Apparently (from another forum), VAG coat the insides of the diesel tanks with a coloured coating that is unaffected by diesel but detatches with petrol. Allegedly used to determine if the car was misfuelled. This would block the filter, also petrol may have damaged the HP pump.

Edited 23 November, 201312 yr by xman

Dirty Fuel from Supermarkets might be a Myth, but the OP has not yet said he uses a Super Market to fuel up.

Contaminated fuel from small County Type tanks is no myth.

 

 Condensation in Filling Station Tanks in Winter and in Vehicles Tanks is no myth,

Why many try to keep their vehicles tanks full in winter with daytime and night time temp changes.

 

This can equally apply with Underground Tanks, and why including the obvious there is Winter Graded Diesel,

& also Winter Spec Petrol,

less hygoscopic, less Waxing with Diesel, less prone to H20 with petrol.

 

Fuel Line Filters or Diesels are a great thing, and some vehicles need regularly drained of Water,  pity that style are not so common now,

& handy on Petrol Cars as well where Fuel and Weather Conditions can mean the possibility of condensation in tanks.

 

george

I'll clear up, the car is approx 2.5 years old,we''ve owned it for one year.

It is ran, for the most part, on supermarket fuels. Though not any one in particular, it gets a mix of asda, tesco, sainsbury's. Never Morrisons while i've owned it though...

Oh and hasn't been misfueled, by us anyway

From your reactions, it appears that the dealer hasn't been unreasonable in their dealing with me then.

I just hate that they played the supermarket fuel car, wtf am i supposed to do with that, no come back whats so ever.

I was also irritated as the dealer had only serviced the car three weeks prior

I don't know if it is a factor but the wife tends to run it 'til it's really empty, whereas i would generally fill it up at a quarter of a tank.

If the Service 3 weeks earlier did not include the fuel filter change and there was no issue then, they can hardly go changing the filter,

or foresee an issue arising in the future any more than the driver of the car can.

 

http://www.skoda.co.uk/owners/service-and-maintenance/national-pricing/servicing

^ i know.

Maybe the attitude of the service department had more to do with my reaction than the actual car issue...

Also, no-one else has had to change their fuel filter earlier than scheduled?

I think they have had to change them earlier than 60,000 miles, as i said in post #2,  a safety thing, saves greater expense.

 

Some people buy a 12 month old car, or any age of car and then have a Major / Full Service done,

change all Fluids & Filters. Coolant changed as well.

You never know what a previous owner did. If you are buying a Keeper you factor that into the Running costs.

 

With Diesels they might even have run Red Diesel from their work place. 

Put Additives in the Fuel Tank or anything of the likes.

 

Hope it is all fine now.

Maybe ask a Qualified Mechanic that works some place else for their opinion on the subject.

 

george

Also, no-one else has had to change their fuel filter earlier than scheduled?

 

Yes, I've changed many filters in diesel cars earlier than the service schedule. These were mainly Honda's and Nissans (dealership I worked for). It has to be said virtually all our customers were fueling from supermarkets. I believe supermarkets have advanced considerably in recent times in improving the quality of their fuels, especially petrol. But it is true that supermarket fuel has until very recently burned leaving much more residue in the engine. And it is true that for petrol, the tanks that it is stored in remain cleaner with higher volume sales. With diesel, it's a little different. Supermarket diesel at times has only just met the most basic BS requirements for high pressure pump lubricity. A standard generally regarded as inadequate in engineering terms for long term modern high pressure pumps on cr engines. This has largely been improved now and the supermarkets add more lube. Whereas, from the beginning other brands of fuel added lubricity improvers to avoid early pump and injector failures, also using first grade detergents and cleaners to keep the engine clean inside.  However, high volume sales of diesel from a garage does not guarantee clean underground storage tanks. In fact, it can make keeping the tanks clean harder. The more diesel going into the underground tanks, the more dirt and water going in. Diesel fuel contains water at levels above that of petrol due to all sorts of reasons and this along with the intrinsic dirt in the fuel builds up to sometimes quite alarming levels. Unfortunately, it does not all get filtered out by the pumps at point of sale. I would not let your fuel tank run right down each time, this does suck up more crude from the bottom of the tank each time and will dirty your filters. Diesel car tanks do become very dirty by comparison to most petrol tanks for the reasons I list above.