Pajero Fuel Filter Change
This is one part of the servicing I’ve been putting off for a while. It just looked a little complicated to me and when you start playing about with fuel lines and things it worries a relative newbie with the spanners. Anyway, it had to be done and I was determined to do it myself, so here’s the write-up with some pictures.
As usual with the Pajero there are several theories on how often the fuel filter should be replaced. These include: Every 12 months, every 40000 miles, only when you think it might be causing a problem. At this point for me I don’t when the fuel filter was last changed (if ever) so I need to do it now for peace of mind. Then I can decide how often to do it in the future at a later point.
The first thing you have to do when performing a Pajero fuel filter change is to find the bloody thing! Here’s a photo of where the fuel filter is located on my 2.8 before I remove anything:
As will become obvious in this write-up you need much more access than is available at this point. You at least have to take off the intercooler (big silver/black thing to left) and those who have two batteries as I do often talk about removing the battery nearest to the filter as well. I managed just fine with only removing the intercooler. If you don’t know how to do this, have a look here first: Removing the Pajero Intercooler
Once the intercooler is out of the way we can see a much better view of the fuel filter which is arrowed below.
Right, now we can see the thing we need to remove the 2 fuel pipes. These are pretty obvious to see, coming off the front of the fuel filter unit. In theory you can do this with a screwdriver but I found it easier with a socket. Once removed there will be a little diesel leakage from the pipes but not much when I did mine. Note: you might wish to label these pipes before you remove them so you know which goes where when refitting.
Now it gets fiddly. Have a look down the back of the fuel filter housing and you should see the 2 bolts that hold it all in place. A socket extension was called for here - remove the 2 bolts.
Pull the whole fuel filter unit away from the bulkhead carefully and you’ll see that it is attached to 2 electrical clips. Undo these and try not to get diesel into them as I’m reliably informed this can damage the seals inside. You should now be able to take the whole fuel filter unit away from the vehicle, watching out for the diesel spilling out.
Ideally you have a vice available at this point. Otherwise you’ll have to improvise. Keep the unit upright and place the plastic water sensor (right at the bottom) very gently in the grips of the vice - just enough to get a hold of it (see photo below). Twist the filter and housing anti-clockwise to loosen, but not remove the plastic water sensor.
Now open up the jaws of the vice and grip it tightly around the body of the fuel filter itself (not the top housing). Twist the top housing anti-clockwise to remove the fuel filter. Drain any diesel from the fuel filter now. Then unscrew the plastic water sensor all the way out so it’s removed.
Here’s a photo of the whole thing taken apart. Left to right: New Mitsubishi fuel filter, old fuel filter, fuel filter housing. Bottom: Water sensor. Also notice on the water sensor the arrowed o-ring. In the box of the Mitsubishi fuel filter that I bought there was a new o-ring to go here which I obviously replaced. Not sure if this is the case on an after market fuel filter?
Let’s put it all back together!
Put the new o-ring onto the water sensor and then screw this into the new fuel filter. I couldn’t find out how tight this is supposed to be really, so I did it as tight as I could with my fingers and then gave it a final nip in the vice.
Now open up the vice and hold the fuel filter itself in place and screw on the filter housing. Again there’s no real test of how tight, it’s a guess really.
Right, now we’re ready to go back to the truck with it. Hold the unit roughly where it’s going to sit and put back the two cable clips you removed before taking it out. Then put back the 2 bolts at the back and tighten them up.
Now we need to put the fuel pipes back onto the front of the housing. Mine had these old clip things that I tried tightening but after a certain point they just seemed to spin. I really wasn’t confident about them so I replaced them with some small jubilee clips. My local motor factors had them labelled up specifically as fuel line clips.
At this point we’re almost done, but the fuel filter needs ‘bleeding’ to pull through the diesel and and fill the unit with fuel, therefore removing any air. The manual I followed showed a fuel filter housing with a different pump and air plug arrangement to mine, so I can only describe how mine looks and works. Yours might be different, but the principle’s the same.
I’ve shown a close up of the top of my filter housing below to show the relevant parts. Unscrew the white disc on the left which is the pump. Now undo the bleed screw (a few turns) which is the big nut in the centre. Work the pump until until fuel without bubbles comes out of the bleed screw. Now tighten the bleed screw and pump again until resistance is felt. Now tighten up the pumping disc.
Have a final check to make sure everything you took off is back in place securely, then put the intercooler back on. Now fire her up and off you go.
All in all a job that I needn’t have been worried about at all that could be done from start to finish in about half an hour with a little experience.
I’d love feedback on this post. What do you think about what I’ve written? Any tips on how to do it better/more efficiently. Anything you think I’m doing wrong? Please let me know in the comments box below.
November 22nd, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Hi Ingrid.
Many thanks for your kind comments. They kind of make this site worthwhile to me!
Tim
November 22nd, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Thanks…great help for me…my pajero is just like yours and the pictures are wonderful…really appreciate your efforts to share with the rest of us - like you say - took me ages to find the thing - and its evident no-one has changed it
February 28th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Hi Pete. Yes there is another filter on the pick up pipe in the tank. Not sure how you get to it though as I’ve never done it.
February 28th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
I found on my pajero, 2.8 D . If you remove the battery it saves a lot of time removing the intercooler. Please can someone tell me if there is a second filter around the fuel tank i am having problems with mine pajero. Thank you. pete london
January 21st, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Hi Adam - thanks for posting.
Excellent tips, especially filling up the filter before refitting - I’ll be doing that next time. Also interesting to hear about your mechanic mate’s tip for injector cleaner. Luckily for me every filter I remove on this Paj seems to be well clean, but I’ll bear it in mind in the future.
Glad you like the site - lots more work to do on it yet.
Tim
January 21st, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Good photos and writing. A tip worth noting, before bleeding the fuel filter, fill it with clean diesel, less pumping after refit so remove air. A worthwhile investment is a filer wrench, I like the nylon strap kind as I use it for tightening and untightening other things that I don´t want to leave marks on. I was also told by a mechanic friend of mine that when he changes fuel filters and they were very dirty, he actually fills the fuel filter with an injector cleaner (Wynns or Wurth I think) to clean the injectors and lines, the engine smokes for a short while, but a run at operating temp soon clears this and reduces emissions for the all important MOT test. As for how tight, hand tight + about half a turn but not too tight. All in all a great site.
December 7th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
Thanks for that Pete - hope it goes well for you (piece of cake!). I’m going to have to do a write up of an oil change next time I do one as well.
December 7th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
Thanks for this - it’s just the sort of site I need. I need to do an oil and fuel filter change tomorrow, so I’ll be following your lead.
December 6th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
Great stuff Andy, hope it works out OK for you. Hope the weather’s better there than it is here right now.
December 6th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Thanks for the information you provided. It has been very helpful and provided me with the confidence to undertake a task I would not normaly risk, especially in a field in the middle of Spain !!!!!!!!!
October 26th, 2007 at 5:56 pm
Hi Jay - glad it helped.
October 26th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
Thanks this made the whole thing effotless
October 6th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
Hi John, thanks for the interesting update.
Bet you’re glad that you changed the filter then! Just shows what a little servicing can do. Must say mine was pretty clean when I removed it, but the rest of the car’s in great condition too. Obviously new glow plugs were badly needed too.
Yeah, my truck had an immobiliser on when I bought it, so I was lucky. I’ve heard there are good alarm/immobilisers to be had on ebay for about £80 - self fit.
The lights for the wheels are a very common problem. Should be just replacement bulbs needed. One of mine doesn’t work so I’ll be sorting it soon and will write a post about it. I hear it’s an easy job.
Tim
October 6th, 2007 at 7:58 am
Just an update on the fuel filter change, You should have seen the sludge that was in the filter, dirty brown sludge, it’s a wonder it was going at all, little wonder it was guttless, it’s gone from a maximum speed of 60mph with your foot to the boards to 85mph with ease, I realise the’re not built for speed but one must be able to overtake safely, so again thanks for your tips on removing the filter.
As for the poor starting, while I had the intercooler out of the way I took advantage of the free work space and removed the buss bar and glow plugs, the bar was perfect, not so for the plugs though, they were totaly burned out, not a very well maintaned vehicle at all.
A few niggley things to sort out now, My insurance company will not cover me for theft until I fit an immoboliser, any suggestions on a fairly easy one to fit anyone?
also the lights on the consul for the driving wheels indicator are not all illuminating, does anyone know if this is a sensor fault or simply bulbs?
September 30th, 2007 at 8:08 am
Hi John - thanks for the comment.
It’ll be interesting to know if a new filter does the trick. Must be pretty dirty if it does. Perhaps check the fuel lines as well for muck?
I’d also be interested to hear how you get on with the glow plugs/cold start situation. As the cold weather approaches mine’s getting a little harder to start in the morning so I might need to look into this.
Tim
September 30th, 2007 at 2:16 am
Thanks for that, I too have just bought a Pajero and unfortunatly it wouldn’t pull the skin of the preverbial rice pudding, I have put this down to fuel starvation, therefore the filter is the first thing to go, hopefully that will do the trick, also I have a poor cold start problem, I’ll try new glow plugs and modify the buss bar ie make a new one, if that doesn’t do the trick I’ll wire in a pre heat button, save any mucking around, all this will have to wait until I get back from offshore off course, can’t wait to get back to it.
September 24th, 2007 at 11:49 am
Hi Tam - thanks for your comment and kind words. Makes it all worth while. Good luck with your new Pajero.
Tim
September 24th, 2007 at 11:40 am
this information is priceless, ive just bought a pajero and like yourself dont know when the fuel filter was last changed, so rather than pay a garage to do this simple task, im going to do it myself, so thankyou very much for sharing this information with us other owners.