110 defender td5 xs fuel filter

Hi, new to this site, and to owning a 110 defender. The fuel filter was leaking - tried to see what the problem was and the small cap broke off in my hand. I have managed to tie it back on and it is no longer leaking, but need to (a) replace the cap with a new one, (b) get the last bit of the cap out of the filter (where it has snapped off) or (c) simply buy a whole new filter for less than £10 if my initial web searches are right. Any advice on parts is greatly appreciated - assuming there is no need to go to a land rover dealer and pay a lot more for a fuel filter than i could find online. Is there any way I can turn the fuel off(?), as if the leak starts again before the part arrives I'm going to lose a whole tank of diesel. thanks in advance, dan.

110lwb said:

Hi, new to this site, and to owning a 110 defender. The fuel filter was leaking - tried to see what the problem was and the small cap broke off in my hand. I have managed to tie it back on and it is no longer leaking, but need to (a) replace the cap with a new one, (b) get the last bit of the cap out of the filter (where it has snapped off) or (c) simply buy a whole new filter for less than £10 if my initial web searches are right. Any advice on parts is greatly appreciated - assuming there is no need to go to a land rover dealer and pay a lot more for a fuel filter than i could find online. Is there any way I can turn the fuel off(?), as if the leak starts again before the part arrives I'm going to lose a whole tank of diesel. thanks in advance, dan.

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Yes you can get a fuel filter from elsewhere. It doesn't have to be genuine but steer clear of britpart fuel filters cos they can cause loss of power. Did the plastic bit that broke look like a bottle top with a small nozzle out of it or was it a plastic block with wires coming out of it? (see piccies below). Make sure when ordering your new filter that it comes with the water drain valve (the bottle top with the spout as shown in the second pic) as TD5's are meant to have water trap sensors fitted (the big piece of plastic with the wires coming out in the first pic) which are transferable between filters so not all of them have anything in the hole in the bottom.

You will be pleased to know that as long as you don't turn the ignition on and set the electric fuel pump running all you will lose is the contents of the fuel filter and not the entire tank contents should the worst happen.

Here's a piccy of a water sensor



Here's a filter fitted with a standard water drain

Reopening old post, but just had the same thing happen to me. Returning from walking the dog I followed a suspicious dark trail down a forest track to the back of our 110. On inspection the bottom of the little plastic doohickey dropped off the fuel filter leaving the threaded bit in and fuel began running out. I wasn't unduly concerned because I figured I'd just lose the volume of the filter as the pump was off; therefore no panic to fix it. Couldn't get the 'hand tight' filter off, so popped a handy plastic box under to catch an expected filter's worth of diesel and started the hunt for anything/anyone useful as I hadn't got a single useful tool with me. Was surprised to return to find 5 litres of diesel in the container and no sign of it stopping; I had to rethink the urgency of the matter! It seemed to be siphoning the fuel out of the tank. When we eventually got the filter off the flow stopped instantly. As I'm a complete novice in the joys of keeping a Defender alive I'm not sure what would have been the right way to buy time and save fuel. Would blocking the breather on the fuel tank have eventually built up a vacuum and stopped the drain if I'd needed to go even further afield for tools? I could have just punctured the filter and undone it that way, but I wanted to re-attach it to get home!