Diesel - drain water from fuel filter
 

Hello all, I just purchased a new Cayenne Diesel. I'm enjoying the car and have been trying to prepare myself for all the maintenance required to keep the car in pristine condition. While looking through the rec'd maintenance log I noticed that with every oil change Porsche recommends the fuel filter to be drained of water. Is this something that's complicated to do or fairly easy? Every dealer and independent shop I contacted has no idea that the fuel filter needs to be cleaned/water drained.

You will have to take the tank off then take the pump out to drain the fuel into a couple of good buckets and then the water will go to the top that time you can completely drain it out.

He is talking about a diesel, not a gasser. There is a filter in the line somewhere that needs to be bled periodically. The whole tank does not need to be drained.

I haven't looked for mine yet, so I don't know the answer to the question, sorry.

I doubt the maintenance log has been updated to reflect the revised oil change interval. If yours is a US-spec Cayenne Diesel, it's now every 5000 miles. At only 6400 miles I haven't looked yet, but I doubt a US-spec Cayenne has a fuel separator to drain - more likely a throwaway filter to change. So changing the fuel filter that often is not cost effective. Pg9 of the maintenance booklet shows it as a 10k/annual service. And it's likely part of the 20k and 40k scheduled services. I plan to trade up before the expensive 40k service, so I'm looking at only doing mine at the 10k/1yr and 30k/3yr marks.

//greg//

You are probably correct. The last diesel fuel filter I had to deal with was my dad's old tractor when I was a kid. Hopefully when I change mine the first time I'll make less of a mess than I did back then :D

Did you mess with the filter on your old T before you traded it? I would assume that it's the same procedure and probably in a similar (given chassis changes) location.

Thanks for the responses. I hope someone motivated enough can create a DIY to help all the diesel owners.

I spoke to all of the major dealer service managers in my area (Wash DC), two independent shops, as well as two customer service reps at Porsche corporate. NONE had any idea what I was talking about. One person thought that you needed to change the fuel filter at 60k miles. Needless to say anyone who's getting their diesels serviced at the dealer is probably not getting their fuel filters cleaned/drained/etc.

I know this is an old thread, but I attached a pdf with Porsche repair instructions demonstrating how to drain water from fuel filter. Hope this helps.