Will it ever stop? My latest break down..........En route to the south of Spain the fuel filter housing goes pop, spraying diesel all over the engine. This is just over a year following replacement of the filter by a Fiat garage (because the old one was leaking).

Wonder how much longer my break down/recovery insurance will keep on attending my regular break downs with this lemon.

Rigormortis said:

Will it ever stop? My latest break down..........En route to the south of Spain the fuel filter housing goes pop, spraying diesel all over the engine. This is just over a year following replacement of the filter by a Fiat garage (because the old one was leaking).

Wonder how much longer my break down/recovery insurance will keep on attending my regular break downs with this lemon.

Click to expand...

do you keep replacing with the poorly made modern one..?:chin:

I had the euro 4 with the replacement cartridge type filter and had no problem with it.
I replaced with an euro 5 which had an easily replaceable complete unit. A doddle to change in less than 5 minutes.
I now have a euro 6 which looks like it is back to a replaceable cartridge albeit with a completely metal housing and top held together with alan screws..

I wonder why the design keeps changing for something so simple?

Guessing the OP's is the euro4 version and they haven't used the correct tool to tighten up after filter change
Agree with Rayc, euro 5's were a doddle with the fast clip metal canister filter, the Eu6 have had a service done, not sure if they did change or skimped and charged as it looks untouched,
With the Eu5 I noticed a drop in power and mpg at 25k but with Eu6 there's no power to drop and the mpg is ****e so it can stay until next service [emoji23]

Rigormortis said:

Will it ever stop? My latest break down..........En route to the south of Spain the fuel filter housing goes pop, spraying diesel all over the engine. This is just over a year following replacement of the filter by a Fiat garage (because the old one was leaking).

Wonder how much longer my break down/recovery insurance will keep on attending my regular break downs with this lemon.

Click to expand...

In 2014 I experienced the same thing and had the whole filter unit replaced. Expensive, yes, but I will never change the filter cartridge again.

The Euro 4 plastic filter housing and cap is widely used on other vehicles as well as the X2/50/ There is a special tool to hold it when changing the filter - so you can tighten it with a torque wrench. I got this tool of ebay for about £15.
Unfortunately people tend to manage without the special tool by putting the plastic housing in a vice, and not tightening the cap with a torque wrench. Then blame FIAT when it leaks.

Even an official Fiat dealer changed my filter cartridge without using the cradle tool. Behind a service station in a small town in Northern Italy I found a heap of UFI filter housings with various defects.
At the time Fiat maintained it was a sound construction, later they abandoned the plastic thing and used a metal filter instead.