Main Diesel Fuel Filter. Ask for it to be to be replaced at service.

[jeff butler Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close jeff butler]

Make sure you ask for the under bonnet diesel fuel filter to be replaced. It's not a sheduled service item and won't be changed unless you ask or the fuel filter light comes on. Had the 80,000 k sevice Thursday, wife had to go out west on the Saturday . 30 min into a 1,000k trip get a phone call, fuel filter light came on, meet her, drained sediment trap, light stayed on, swapped cars, not happy. Took Prado back to dealer Monday morning,yep blocked main fuel filter. Funny thing was the guy i was sitting next to in the dealers waiting room had exactly the same thing happen with his 200 series diesel cruiser,80,000k service on Thursday and all. When i talked to the service advisor, was told a few customers ask for the filter to be replaced, generally every 40,000k. Seemed like my scenario was not new to them. Suggested they should advise customers about the issue but they didn't seem too interested. Anyway rang Toyota Customer Experience Centre and related my bad experience to them. Sounded like they had heard it before, just like the 1500 vibration.

[brogers Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close brogers]

thanks Jeff,

How much did they charge you for the filter?

[switched Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close switched]

thanks Jeff,

How much did they charge you for the filter?

Brogers, I just replaced mine, $64 for the filter (parts only)

[matt150 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close matt150]

Mine gets changed every 10,000km......

[William Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close William]

I've drained mine before but how do you replace it?

Is it a matter of removing the hoses/sensor and plugging it into the new filter?

What are the possible newbie mistakes? Will Diesel go all over the place? Will there be issues with priming?

I know ... too many questions for a Monday evening.

Cheers

[jeff butler Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close jeff butler]

They charged me $87.02 for the main Under bonnet fuel filter. The under car filter they do every 20,000k as per shedule they charge $ 88.21. After this car comes out of warranty and off lease i will revert to doing my own servicing.

[Hazza Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hazza]

Having spoken to the dealer and service manager I used to work for he recommended every 40,000 km for the under bonnet filter.

Personally installing pre filter to take the bulk of the nasties out allowing the genuine filter to finish the job can't be a bad idea. On the other hand it's been suggested to place the additional filter after the genuine so the genuine can notify you when there is contaminates in the fuel.

Either way clean fuel is a must for modern diesels so an extra filter change will always be a good thing. Also keep a spare handy.

Hazza

[Nadsy Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Nadsy]

Interesting. I recently travelled to Sydney from the Canberra Region. The car had 45,000Km on it, and what happens half way? Yup 'Fuel Filter Maintenance Required'. Anyway, it was 0530 in the morning, and I had to be at the International terminal at 0700, so I kept driving (and the owners manual didn't elaborate too much on it).

Anyway, in Toyota's defence, as soon as I got back from overseas, I called the closest dealer, and they sorted it out for me in minutes.

The service centre said that there was a lot of water in the filter, and it was probably from a bad batch of Diesel. I've just moved semi-rural, so it could be true... but it is interesting that it happened at the 40,000Km mark in line with comments above?!? He also said that it if it happens again, get the filter changed... so I'm confused about whether it was the filter or the fuel... but a few weeks and 5000K later, it hasn't happened again.

[tempestv8 Member Find all posts View Profile Close tempestv8]

On a 200 Series, if the warning light comes on solid, without any audible alarms, it signifies that the filter is partially blocked. In which case you can keep driving, but can expect suboptimal performance at full throttle overtaking because the filter is not allowing fuel to pass through the element quickly enough.

But if the warning light is flashing followed by the audible boing boing chimes, immediately stop at the side of the road, as the sedimenter trap has detected the presence of water.

Not sure whether this is the same warning behaviour for a Prado 150 Series, but I'd imagine it'll be the same.

[jeff butler Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close jeff butler]

Talked to a guy at work who owns a 09 hiace D4D about the main fuel filter being not included in the service shedule, so he checked his service book and guess what? No shedule for changing any fuel filters on the diesel! Interestingly i mentioned to him that at 150,000k the fuel pump is to be replaced in the D4D prado according to the schedule. When we checked the hiace D4D service shedule there is no mention of replacing the fuel pump. Strange. Any ideas? Wonder what is in the Hilux service shedule for D4D equipped vehicles.

[brogers Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close brogers]

On the 150 Prado when the fuel system warning light flashes and buzzer sounds....stop and drain the fuel filter sediment trap immediately. Page 470 of the Owners manual shows you how to do this, its easy. You turn the nobbly drain plug located under the filter about 2 and a half turns anticlockwise by hand. Pump the prime pump on the top of the fuel fiter assembly and flush the sediment trap. Retightern the drain plug by hand. Put as small container under the filter to catch the diesel. In fact this should be done every service, however it is easily overlooked, so do it yourself. If the light/buzzer comes on whilst driving just pull over and drain the filter asap, no need for a container, and just flush the filter and all is ok. (Personally I would then change the filter/sediment accumulator at the next convenient time.) Toyota recommend that the petrol Prado have their fuel filter changed at 80,000km, but not on the diesel model...I know there is a fuel transfer filter under the car which is changed every 20,000km but why not the main filter/water sediment accumulator?

According to the Servcie schedule, at every service the "water sediment accumulator" should be "inspected"...that can only be done if it is drained and the diesel that comes out is inspected for any water.

Interestingly, and just as an aside, before a flight and after every refuelling, aircraft pilots open a fuel drain point on an aircarft and uses a special paste or a special indicator that changes colour if there is water in the fuel because the water is not always visually obvious if it is mixed in with the fuel, and obviously they don't want an aircraft engine splutteing or stopping during flight if water gets into the system.....well, I'm not doing that every time I refuel the Prado, but I do drain the water sediment accumulator occasionally and give it a flush by pushing the primer knob a few times just to be sure there is no water or crud in the filter.

[Nadsy Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Nadsy]

Interestingly, and just as an aside, before a flight and after every refuelling, aircraft pilots open a fuel drain point on an aircarft and uses a special paste or a special indicator that changes colour if there is water in the fuel because the water is not always visually obvious if it is mixed in with the fuel, and obviously they don't want an aircraft engine splutteing or stopping during flight if water gets into the system.....well, I'm not doing that every time I refuel the Prado, but I do drain the water sediment accumulator occasionally and give it a flush by pushing the primer knob a few times just to be sure there is no water or crud in the filter.

;-) . An aside close to my heart. Yes... the paste/indicator IS the legal requirement (and probably a must when flying out bush getting fuel from drums). In practice, most just hold it up against a white surface to check that there is a tinge of blue (color of 100LL AVGAS). If there is a small amount of water, it will look like bubbles down the bottom of the tester. A full tester of water is harder to detect (a real pain on a cessna 310 with 9 drain points).

[jeff butler Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close jeff butler]

Sounds easy to drain the sediment trap but in reality it's not that simple. When I did mine the other day I ended up removing the two assembly mounting nuts and tilting the whole assembly. There just isn't a lot of room and just try to catch the waste diesel ! In an earlier life I was a diesel mechanic ,so this was no big deal but its not as easy as described in the Toyota handbook.

[brogers Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close brogers]

Maybe the knob underneath the filter had been done up too tight prerviously, and whilst there isn't heaps of room, I certainly don't have any problem, seriously. I use a small ice cream type container and catch the diesel, but anyway, I didn't find it too bad, and certainly didn't have to take the filter mounting bolts off and tilt the whole assembly....maybe there is some variation between Prado models....I'm not sure what vehicle yours is Jeff as it seems you haven't put any info in your signature area, but, just maybe, there are some slight differences sufficient to make it more difficult in some models than it needs to be...perhaps?

[str8up Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close str8up]

I'm thinking about replacing the under bonnet diesel filter with a Repco brand one. Are these "ok"? $30 vs $64 for genuine...