morning,

i am planning to change the deisel tank on my defender 90 200tdi this weekend, what i need to know is this,

is it necessary to blled the fuel system manually afterwards or will it self bleed ?

thanks for your help in advance.

 

Bleeding it is a better idea than allowing it to self bleed - it isn't that fiddly to do either.

From what I've heard, the Tdi's crank so fast on the starter that they'll push fuel through pretty quickly without bleeding it. Never changed a tank, only the fuel filter and I've always primed it afterwards, choice is yours

 

Ok - changed my fuel filter again yesterday and thought I'd try this 'self bleed' lark.

In a word, don't. You can save a bit of time by filling the new filter with the diesel from the old one, but if you crank the starter with the filter empty of fuel you'll end up bleeding the injection pump too - all told it took me about 30 minutes longer than usual.

Priming the system is very simple - there's a manual pump arm on the lift pump that should do the job - crack the bleed screw on top of the fuel filter and push the pump handle down to unclip it. Repeatedly press the handle in as far as it goes, towards the block, to manually pump fuel up to the filter. Takes about 5 mins (max) to do if you fill the new filter first and have only changed the filter - I can't imagine it takes much longer to prime if you have to pump all the way from the tank.

Cheers,

 

cheers Adz,

i changed the tank a couple of weekends ago now, nightmare getting the 1/2 dozen bolts which hold the tank and support bracket off, i wound up with a hammer and chisel and a certain amount of profanity before it finally gave in and let me win. it took me 8 hours to get the old tank off, 7 of those hours were the 3 bolts which mount the end bracket and the two at the other end of the tank.
It took 2 hours to put the new one on and get the beast running again, i bled through to the fuel filter using the hand primer and it fired first time and kept running.

Sorry i didn't see your beer offer until today, next time you are in this neck of the woods let me know and i will meet you half way, the M1 junction 15/16 is about 25 mile from here.