I cleaned off the top of the filter housing so I could clearly see the leak. Here's video of the leak in action after turning off the car and the pressure built up in the system. It wasn't leaking while the car was running - just during start up, and after running.


That's a nice fine mist just looking for a spark. And the leak continued for a while, so if it ignited, the fire would have been kept fed until the car burned all the way down.

Don't smoke while doing this test.

 

holy cow thats scary.

 

I need the car since my fun cars don't make great daily drivers, especially in 101degF weather, so I will have to pay the ransom at the dealer which is almost double ($252 vs $138) the normal MSRP for the replacement part. I'll go ahead and mail order another one for my other XF at the discount of $114, so I don't get caught out on that car that is the same age.

Like a lot of the plastic in this car, this really needs to be a maintenance item. It's a filter as well, so makes sense to replace before it becomes a fire hazard.

 

what was it that caused you to investigate into this leak? fuel smell?

 

 

Yes. It smelled in the car at times, and also around the right passenger door area.

 

There was a recall on older XF's and newer ones if they had the old parts put in during repairs. Mine were not part of the recall.

Mine is done on the grey XF. Took about an hour to replace it, so it's not a difficult job. No more leaks for another 8 years.

I only wish I didn't need the car so I could have avoided paying the ridiculous markup OVER msrp that the local dealer charges. I'll proactively replace the same plastic part in my white XF when the much less expensive mail order part arrives next week.

 

Thanks for the heads up. What was the part number of the item you replaced and what was involved in swapping out the part?

 

jaghelp.com: Fuel smell and weak start on your XF

you can look up your part number for your car on parts.com

 

Down the street there are probably ten good garages that will be perfectly happy to change your fuel filter for very little dinero . . . .

 

Just a note? The link above is long dead and worthless as usual with anything old on the internet!
The video is also long gone. A fairly useless thread at this point in time.
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