Skezza Posted June 20, 2014 Report Share Posted June 20, 2014 (edited) Hi,I've now bought two fuel filters from two different places including a proper VW OEM part. Both have said to be for 1998 - 2000 Lupo SDi's, yet both have the smaller hole for the thermostatic valve. My thermostatic valve is the larger one with the two o-rings like on a Golf and therefore won't fit. The white thermostatic valve is smaller, the black thermostatic valve is bigger.Can someone else with a Lupo SDI confirm what colour their thermostatic valve is? A photo would be nice. I'm starting to think someone before me has taken the valve off a Golf and fitted that for some reason. Problem is, I can get a replacement valve, but I think the white valve used a different type of clip. Mine uses the mickey mouse clip, whereas I think white ones use a sort of R shaped clip.If you're not sure what a thermostatic valve is, it's that T piece thing that shits on top of the fuel filter. Edited June 20, 2014 by Skezza Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant0889 Posted June 20, 2014 Report Share Posted June 20, 2014 is it worth raiding a scrappy?i can only compare this to my arosa TDI, but i cant imagine the fuel filter setup would of changed drastically Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skezza Posted June 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2014 is it worth raiding a scrappy?i can only compare this to my arosa TDI, but i cant imagine the fuel filter setup would of changed drasticallyI can get a new T piece. It's getting the R clip that's being a pain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skezza Posted June 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2014 OK, so looks like there's been a bit of a **** up. The fuel filter valve on my SDI is the same as what's on a Golf. Now I thought that someone had simply bodge fixed it. However, more annoyingly, it looks as though VW changed the part around 2000 based on chassis number rather than reg, and chassis numbers are notoriously unreliable. Looks like there might be an information thread coming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted June 20, 2014 Report Share Posted June 20, 2014 You're going to kick start the 'how to' fetish again ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skezza Posted June 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2014 You're going to kick start the 'how to' fetish again ? no, more of an information thread those buggers at VW changed the fuel filter valve to the same as the golf one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted June 20, 2014 Report Share Posted June 20, 2014 I changed the fuel filter on an SDI Polo yesterday, the T piece was leaking a little so I just went two units down and got one from a mk4 Golf, it was a T plate AFN code TDI.The Polo was a W reg.Explain that.......I will however offer you an out the box solution to your problem.Use a fuel filter from a Rover diesel, it doesn't have the T piece part and then you can just fit a metal sleeve inside the two pipes and clamp it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skezza Posted June 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2014 I changed the fuel filter on an SDI Polo yesterday, the T piece was leaking a little so I just went two units down and got one from a mk4 Golf, it was a T plate AFN code TDI.The Polo was a W reg.Explain that.......I will however offer you an out the box solution to your problem.Use a fuel filter from a Rover diesel, it doesn't have the T piece part and then you can just fit a metal sleeve inside the two pipes and clamp it.Can't pal. All I know is what VW told me today on the phone. The original T-Piece to an SDI Lupo is a white t-piece from a T4 Transporter. The white T-piece uses an R spring clip as opposed to the more widely recognized 'mickey mouse' clip that is found on the black T-piece. It has only one O-Ring as opposed to the two that you find on the black T-piece. In early 2000 (perhaps around the time they introduced the TDI) they switched from using the white T-piece to the black T-piece however, the bloke on the phone told me that this wasn't dated and it merely goes on chassis number (starting with 6000 I believe, mine being about 4000). He said chassis number records are notoriously unreliable and it wouldn't be odd for vehicles built 'before' the recorded dates might have had the black t-piece anyway. Of course, throw in the fact that it could have been changed by a previous owner as well, especially as Golf MK4 Fuel Filters seem to be cheaper than Lupo SDI ones (not sure why as I bet they're very similar and perfectly interchangeable). So effectively, you need to buy the fuel filter based on the T-piece, not the age of the car, a mistake I made with the two I'd already bought.Here's the problem with fitting the Rover diesel fuel filter, isn't that thermostatic valve designed to heat the fuel inside the return line therefore warming up the fuel inside the lines? Surely by removing it, the diesel will take a long time to get warm, if at all, and it will be harder to compress and potentially strain your IP? Just a thought although I suppose that's why more and more people are switching to FPHE's. If I had an FPHE fitted, I would sack using VW fuel filters altogether. At £5 those Rover filters look perfect and are cheap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dblock Posted June 21, 2014 Report Share Posted June 21, 2014 What's fphe? What does the thermostatic valve do? Thermostatic must mean something to do with tempreture but I always thought the black bit on the fuel filter was a pressure regulator or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skezza Posted June 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2014 (edited) What's fphe?What does the thermostatic valve do? Thermostatic must mean something to do with tempreture but I always thought the black bit on the fuel filter was a pressure regulator or something.I thought the point of the thermostatic valve was to use heat from hot fuel sent down the return line? Which is why when I did my diesel purge, the bottle got rather hot as there is hot fuel being returned from the engine? Bypassing the valve would mean the fuel in the fuel filter would remain cold so the car would surely be harder to get up to temperature.An FPHE is a flat plate heat exchanger. They're used on big diesels but many are now fitting them to their smaller diesel engines as they heat the fuel up quicker. They're a bit like a massive heat sink, and running down one side of the heat sink is the cold fuel, and the other side is the coolant from the engine. The heat from the coolant will quickly heat up the fuel improving the compression and improving performance. It would negate the need for a fuel filter like the ones VW sell. Could switch to the ones rich posted. Edited June 21, 2014 by Skezza Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dblock Posted June 21, 2014 Report Share Posted June 21, 2014 My 106 had a coolant heated filter that was a 1997 lol. Ahh interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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