Fiorino 1.7TD Fuel System Bleeding

Tried to renew the fuel filter on my Fiorino Van today, a job that I have managed successfully on other diesel engines in the past. I removed the old filter and then found that I had been supplied with the wrong replacement, so I put the old filter back on (it was still about half full of diesel) and attempted to bleed the system up again. I opened the bleed nut on the top of the filter housing and turned the engine over for a while. The engine spluttered and fired a few times to begin with but then failed to fire atall and no diesel bubbled out of the bleed nut. I removed the filter again and found that it was now completely empty (so the spluttering and firing must have been using up the fuel that had been left in the filter)

I then turned the engine over with the fuel filter completely removed to see if any fuel was being pumped up to the filter housing. No fuel spurted out atall. I can't find any way to pump fuel manually through the sytem.

Can anyone let me know how to bleed the system properly. I seem to be making some basic error.

By the way, the fuel tank is almost full to the brim and I even checked to make sure that the inertia fuel cut off switch in the passenger footwell hadn't by some weird coincidence tripped.

Solved the problem today myself. I checked out the internet for general advice on bleeding injection systems. I realised that with many diesels the technique used is to make sure that the filter is filled to the brim with fuel, to loosen the injector unions, and then to simply churn away with the starter motor until the fuel finds its way through the system.

This method worked fine with my Fiorino. I had trickle charged the van battery overnight to make sure that it was up to the task. When the fuel was flowing freely through the injector unions I carefully tightened them. After a bit more churning of the starter the engine did not immediately fire up, so I loosened the injector unions again in case there was still air in the system and bled them a bit more. On tightening the unions once more the engine still would not start, so I put a tiny squirt of Easy Start (ulp!) into the air filter.This time the engine fired instantly and ran perfectly.

As I said in my original posting, I had been forced to re-fit the old fuel filter because I had been supplied with the wrong replacement. When I had returned to the accessory shop and obtained the correct replacement I took the old filter off once more. This time I filled the new filter to the brim with fuel, fitted it and restarted the engine without any bleeding of the system. The engine ran smoothly for perhaps 30 seconds, faltered briefly and then ran perfectly from then onwards. I expect that filter changing will be as straightforward as this from now on.

Good that you solved it!
I change the fuel filter on my Fiorino Pick-Up 1700 D, twice a year, unscrew the old one, screw the new one on (no fuel in it!), start the engine, and it runs....been doing that now for seven years, so about 14 times, no starting problems at all....!!
I use a Bosch replacement filter btw.