2007 407 HDi 2.7 diesel filter change

[407]

I decided that it might be useful to see how good / bad the diesel filter was on the HDi.

Pic #1 is after the top was taken off plus drained Pic #2 - seems something was alive in the pits of the filter

The old genuine Peugeot filter had a 2018 date on it so not that old - suspect the past services only changed the filter and not the crap at the bottom

I tried to undo the bleed screw but gave up and it seems some screwed it to real tight (see pic #3 with circled bleed screw)

I bled it the easy way - used a pipe on the outlet pipe into a bottle and turned the ignition on to prime the pump until fuel ran out (pic #4).

What does worry me is that the fuel coming out had small particles in it, despite the new filter (pic #5) - I assume the filter works sucking diesel from the outside inside the filter

[myglaren]

The swarf is indicative of one of the fuel pumps failing.
Hard to say which one with the excess fuel being returned to the tank.

[Huskyxantia]

Could this be dirty diesel , because when we were all fighting to bet fuel during the fuel shortage how many garages were running dry ?

[407]

After letting the diesel settle in a glass bottle, I used a magnet but no reaction so not metallic.

Also a brown colour and not silver colour as you might expect.

I suspect its specks of diesel like the first photo of the canister but in speck form (maybe when I was scrapping around the canister)

The real question is why it is there at all if the filter is supposed to trap it ?

eg outlet is sourcing clean diesel from the middle hole of the filter (or it is the other way around eg inlet goes into the middle hole and outlet is after it passes the filter, which is where all the gunk above is ??)

I also looked at the old filter and there is a lot of crud on the outside fins, but pretty clean inside.

Maybe the date code is 18 March 2021 (which makes the person who serviced it last even more suspect)

[Sirwazza]

Changing my filter has saved me around AU$2000 in unnecessary repairs. The replacement filter cost me AU$30 and took about 1 hour to replace and clean out the bowl.

At first I was confused because my beloved 407 was showing "anti-pollution fault" and, at the same time, the cruise control shut down. I took my vehicle to the local service guy who diagnosed a faulty high-pressure fuel pump failure and indicated a cost of a little under AU$2000 to replace the pump. He also suggested that I should consider getting rid of the car before it starting costing me a lot to keep it on the road.

The vehicle has clocked up 92,000klm in 19 years and has been kept in immaculate condition and I still love the car which I consider to be one of the most beautiful sedan cars ever produced.

My thinking was that the fuel pump may not be at fault and I considered other more obvious reasons because the problem was not constant and disappeared for a time and came back in situations of quick accelerations.

The first place to look was obvious to me - the fuel filter. I purchased a replacement for AU$30 and spent an hour this morning doing the replacement and took the car for a 70klm run without any problem. In fact there is a very noticeable smoothness in running and much more power.

So sometimes commonsense is a better diagnostic tool when you are presented with a mechanical issue that doesn't quite make sense.

[wurlycorner]

Fabulous that you got it sorted so simply and can keep a car that you enjoy so much, running.