Fuel filter on a Megane Mk3 1.5 DCi

BrianD3

2009 Megane 1.5 DCi 86 i.e. the lower powered 1.5 engine, no particulate filter.

I've been putting off doing the fuel filter for a while but now it is time. I believe that it is located in the driver side wheel arch and needs the wheel and arch liner to be removed for access.

First question has anyone done this and have a comment. Second one is my main question, if i go to micksgarage.ie there are 5 fuel filters listed for this model, any idea which I should get. Some have a water sensor connector, others don't, there are different dimensions also. They are also all for 2002 on cars so seems like the same filters are used for the Megane II as for the III.

The ones listed are
Wix Filtron Fuel Filter without water sensor connector 33.10
Mahle Original Fuel Filter 41.76
Mahle Original Fuel Filter with water sensor coupling 45.98
Mahle Original Fuel Filter without water sensor connector 50.87
Mann Fuel Filter without water sensor connector 52.11

Thanks

cletus

Might be a stupid question but did you search using your reg or your make and model

Interslice

Go to a main dealer with your reg. I paid 35 euro for one there.

BrianD3

cletus wrote: »

Might be a stupid question but did you search using your reg or your make and model

Not a stupid question - I searched by reg. Now I've searched by model I get different results with all filters listed as being for "08 onwards"

Wix Filtron Fuel Filter 52.21
Mahle Original Fuel Filter 41.67
MANN Fuel Filter 53.63

Go to a main dealer with your reg. I paid 35 euro for one there.

Thanks, that is a lot cheaper than I paid the last time the car was at a main dealer. The fuel filter part cost 76.53 plus VAT on that occasion.

Interslice

BrianD3 wrote: »

Not a stupid question - I searched by reg. Now I've searched by model I get different results with all filters listed as being for "08 onwards"

Wix Filtron Fuel Filter 52.21
Mahle Original Fuel Filter 41.67
MANN Fuel Filter 53.63


Thanks, that is a lot cheaper than I paid the last time the car was at a main dealer. The fuel filter part cost 76.53 plus VAT on that occasion.

Maybe a different filter so than my dads laguna. Give them a ring and see. If they give you the part number you could cross reference with MG.

I paid 115 euro incl VAT for air oil fuel filters and 5l of 5w30. Fuel filter was 35 plus VAT iirc. Mann make the original filters. That was Navan renault on the kentstown rd.

BrianD3

Thanks Interslice, I already have a part number from the invoice from the Renault dealer

On my invoice I have
R8201046788 (Fuel Filter Meg III)

Part no. does not seem to match any code on micksgarage but a quick google of this part number and I have found images of a Renault branded filter with Mahle also written on it. So now I'm pretty sure that the correct one on micksgarage is

Mahle Original Fuel Filter 41.67
Item code: 1544097

Cool

Thanks to yourself and cletus, I have now avoided two things that I hate
1) paying silly main dealer prices for parts
2) buying parts from a motor factors and finding that i have the wrong part when I've already started the job outside on a cold December day.

alias no.9

I've done the filter on my wife's Scenic II which I'm assuming is pretty similar in the drivers wheel arch in front of the wheel, it's pretty straightforward.
There's a little priming bulb under the windscreen bulkhead on the Scenic, probably much easier to access on the Megane, which does away with filling the filter with diesel before fitted it like I had to do on a Primera TD I had many moons ago.

Interslice

My dads one is still sitting on a shelf. I want too get some sort of tool to remove the plastic rivet things in the wheel well without breaking them. Is it similar on the megane?


The part no my dads ends in 638 738 so obviously different. His is a mk 3 110hp. Parts man said there was two types of fuel filter for them.

Interslice

My dads one is still sitting on a shelf. I want too get some sort of tool to remove the plastic rivet things in the wheel well without breaking them. Is it similar on the megane?

alias no.9

Interslice wrote: »

My dads one is still sitting on a shelf. I want too get some sort of tool to remove the plastic rivet things in the wheel well without breaking them. Is it similar on the megane?

There's a few screws and a few of the press fit fasteners that I usually just prise out by getting a large flat head screwdriver underneath. I've scuffed one or two but they go back in and hold just fine. They're pretty cheap anyway, you'd probably buy a bag of them for less than you'd pay for a specialist tool to remove them.

Interslice

alias no.9 wrote: »

There's a few screws and a few of the press fit fasteners that I usually just prise out by getting a large flat head screwdriver underneath. I've scuffed one or two but they go back in and hold just fine. They're pretty cheap anyway, you'd probably buy a bag of them for less than you'd pay for a specialist tool to remove them.

£1.49

Was going to make something similar either with the angle grinder, if I can find a suitable donor in the shed.

BrianD3

Update on this, I did the necessary dismantling to have a look at the existing filter and have ordered a new Mahle one from micksgarage for 49 euro and am pretty sure it is the right one.

I have attached a pic of the existing filter. Although it can't be seen in the pic, Renault is also written on this filter.

There's one thing that I'm not happy about though. The fuel filter on this car was changed in 2011 by a main dealer (part cost was 75 euros plus VAT) and in 2013 by an indy garage (part cost was 26 euro including VAT)

26 euro is too cheap for a Renault branded Mahle filter, also as can be seen from my pic the date of manufacture is 2011.

So basically what has more than likely happened here is the indy garage never changed the filter and ripped me off by charging me for it anyway after making up a bullsh*t price. The result is that the filter has now been in situ for over 3 years and for 120 k kms instead of the proper service interval of 60 k kms :mad: Previously I heard a rumour that this garage had been caught by a customer charging for parts that were not fitted, I dismissed this rumour but based on what I now know it was probably true.



PS here are a couple of links that may be of use for anyone changing a fuel filter on a Megane III. They are in French but the pics tell much of the story and the text can be translated using Bing translator

http://www.auto-technique.fr/fiche-technique/injection-diesel-filtre-a-gazole-renault-scenic-3-p1-337.html

http://www.forum-auto.com/marques/renault/sujet51124.htm

Guy:Incognito

I did the one on the mother 10 reg Megane III a few months back. No going through the arch or anything, I just slid out the headlamp and your looking down on it. 10 mins and it was down.

BrianD3

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

I did the one on the mother 10 reg Megane III a few months back. No going through the arch or anything, I just slid out the headlamp and your looking down on it. 10 mins and it was down.

Good thinking! That might actually be a better option than the arch seeing as the diesel pipes are connected to the top of the filter.

BrianD3

Just a quick question on how to prime/purge the system as I am concerned that I'll introduce air into it and find myself in bother.

Should I connect the "In" fuel line, squeeze the bulb until fuel squirts out of the "Out" from the filter, then connect it.

Or just connect both the In and Out lines and then squeeze the bulb a few times.

Or do something different.

Thanks!

Interslice

BrianD3 wrote: »

Just a quick question on how to prime/purge the system as I am concerned that I'll introduce air into it and find myself in bother.

Should I connect the "In" fuel line, squeeze the bulb until fuel squirts out of the "Out" from the filter, then connect it.

Or just connect both the In and Out lines and then squeeze the bulb a few times.

Or do something different.

Thanks!

Is there not a bleeder screw valve on yours?

Interslice

Changed my dads fuel filter today. It's a 08 Mk III laguna 110 / 1.5 dci.

You have to go through the wheel arch liner. Removing the headlight doesn't give you any access. Just a few 15tx screws and a few plastic rivets holding the liner on.

Borrowed clip tool.


Clip tool in action!


Remove all the screw/rivets under the bumper and up as far as 12 o clock in the wheel arch so you can pull back the liner and get at the filter.


You have to push in the white tab and pull off the connectors. The only awkward bit but I found the edge of a flat head screwdriver on the white part pushed it in enough. Couldn't get it by hand. Not something you want to break either.



Pop the new filter in and open the bleed valve up in the engine bay drivers side and pump the primer until you squirt diesel all over the headlamp :cool:. Close the valve and your done. That's the valve there on the clear fuel line and the bulb is tucked in on the left.

BrianD3

I'm only getting back to this thread now - great post Interslice.

BrianD3

OK, got the job done. Car running better now than before. The filter on my car is a different one than on Interslice's Laguna.

I removed the forward half of the arch liner and the headlamp and it was still awkward enough. Managed to spill quite a lot of diesel on the ground, myself and the car. As per Interslice's post I used a flathead screwdriver to press the white/green parts on the fuel lines to release them.

There is a electronic "thing" that fits into the Megane filter, a water sensor I think. It is held in with one screw and has to be pulled from the old filter and transferred to the new one. There's also a plastic screw (water drain?) at the bottom of the filter that needs to be transferred There are also some seals that need to be renewed, these came with the new filter.

The new filter helpfully had a green dot beside one connection point and a white dot beside the other to match the colour coding of the correct fuel lines.

It took about 20 pumps of the bulb before I had fuel spurting out of the bleed valve. To open the bleed valve I just pressed the centre part of it gently with a screwdriver and held it like that while pumping the bulb.

New Mahle filter


View from arch


View from top with headlight slid out of the way


Priming pump and bleed valve

Interslice

Looks a bit trickier than the laguna. The renault filter I got had the green and white dots too. I cut the old filter open with a grinder. It had a kind of thin black sludge all over the paper! Definitely due to be done.

BrianD3

Interslice wrote: »

Looks a bit trickier than the laguna. The renault filter I got had the green and white dots too. I cut the old filter open with a grinder. It had a kind of thin black sludge all over the paper! Definitely due to be done.

I'd say my filter was in a bad way inside, it had been in situ for nearly 80k miles due to the garage not changing it when they said they did the last time.

Car was running ok before but better now. Also, I don't see any small bubbles in the fuel line exiting the filter which I was seeing before the change.

So while I may have gotten diesel on myself and made a mess, at least I know that the job has been done and that I haven't been lied to by some knuckledragger mechanic.

Thanks to yourself and the other posters for the very useful posts. This thread should be useful in future for anyone changing a fuel filter on a Megane III or Laguna III.

greasepalm

i am surprised your cars were still running,i would be changing diesel filters more often than that,did you no know plenty of crappy diesel about and changing filters on a more regular basis engines might last longer.long life parts are a joke with the conditions of fuels and dust clogging things up,does the handbook not state to change if conditions are worse?

Interslice

greasepalm wrote: »

i am surprised your cars were still running,i would be changing diesel filters more often than that,did you no know plenty of crappy diesel about and changing filters on a more regular basis engines might last longer.long life parts are a joke with the conditions of fuels and dust clogging things up,does the handbook not state to change if conditions are worse?

My dad only bought the car recently. 86000km on it atm. Hopefully it was on its second filter. Will be doing it every 30k km from now on.

The bubbles clear in mine too. They're a good sign of a blockage somewhere between there and the tank.