I know this is an old thread, but having done this job yesterday, on my FSI, I thought I’d give a few pointers to anyone else that tries it.
- Disconnect your battery!
- Having folded back the carpet under the o/s rear seat, the circular plastic cover that you will see needs a quarter turn counter clockwise to remove it.
- You will then see the top of the fuel sender unit, with an electrical connector and fuel pipes attached.
- To remove the electrical connector, as with all these VAG connectors, you should initially press down firmly on the connector whilst gently pushing/squeezing the top of the locking tab on the side inwards with one finger (no more than a couple of millimetres - don’t snap it!) so that it disengages. Then, whilst still squeezing the tab, pull upwards and the connector will come off with a gentle popping sound.
- Fuel lines, one blue and one black, each have a locking tab at the base of their elbow. You need to depress the tab quite a lot and then pull gently upwards to remove. I tucked each one under the rim of hole so that they are out of the way for the next step.
- There is a large, castellated locking ring holding the sender onto the tank. It needs to be unscrewed, counter clockwise, a good number of turns, in order to remove it. You initially think, it looks like it should unscrew by hand, but I found mine was impossible to turn with my bare hands, and access for your fingers is very limited anyway. I initially fashioned a tool that spanned the width of the ring and engaged with the castellations, but again found it impossible to move. The castellations are not very high, so it is hard to get any purchase. In the end, I had to drift it off with a piece of hardwood and a mallet, initially hitting the castellation positioned at about 4 o clock when kneeling in the boot facing the back of the drivers seat. It needed a good few hefty whacks before it started to move. Nb. You need to be careful when drifting that you do not slip and hit one of the fuel pipe connections.
- Once the castellated ring is removed, you should be able to wiggle the sender out carefully. Note it has a rubber seal (mine was falling to pieces from exposure to fuel) and there were fragments in the tank) and has corregated flexible pipes that might catch on the edges of the hole as you remove the unit as a whole. My pipes were all very brittle and every one was broken
, and the vibrations from the drifting won’t have helped.
I haven’t refitted yet, but come the time it will be a reverse of the above.
Hope this helps someone.
John
