Shaker wrote:My point was before about not having to worry so much about immediate engine shutdown, the sediment bowl fitted with the alarm is a great idea rather than the panic and chance of a little water finding it's way into the injector system by the time the Toyota alarm warns you that's all.
Steve9R wrote:Are you saying you wont panic and shutdown the vehicle straight away anyway ??!
Umm, no if you read again thats not what i meant and was reffering to the alarmed sediment bowl before the Toyota filter. Sorry if I sounded confusing...
You were wondering about injector tollerances Steve9R. I rang my brother in law who is an auto electrician for many years. He also does injector work such as sonic injector cleaning and replacements etc and the business is also titled as an injection center. He suggested that because of the very fine machanical tollerances of the injectors, there is next to zero tollerance toward any water or other conaminants (hence why Toyota invested so much into their filter design.) The slightest amount of water takes away the lubricating qualities of diesel, even on a miniscule area of the working injector and damage can start albeit not noticable at the time. This initial damage is not only detrimental to the performance of the injector, but like anything machanical, wear creates a cascading and eventually catastophic effect as that initial wear/damage progresses.
Edit: In relation to injectors and water, the above is reffering to slight injector water contamination. Larger or accummulative droplets of water compress hard in the injectors, unlike diesels normal ability to be pushed though and vapourized from the injector nozzel under pressure and would result total injector damage/failure. Thought I should clarify it a little more.
Lets also remember that if the Toyota filter has ingested water, the Toyota filter should also be replaced as too the C.A.V. filter solution which would have become even more restrictive of flow once is has been submerged in water by the time the Toyota alarm sounds. Not debating or knocking your excellent idea Steve9R and it's a great thread here with a budget solution, but if I know there are better options regarless of cost, it's worth taking. If someone could change the patented design on that alarmed sediment filter by 20%, make the design better by also adding a deeper bowl, whack a world patent on it, they could watch them fly out the door with the right price and promotion... The cost to do this would add up to many tens of thousands of dollars and is why those other units are so expensive due to the research, delvelopment, manufacturing and patenting
I'd like to be in their shoes when the patent is paid off and profits start rolling in, but then again, the price would probably drop by then.
Which ever way one goes, spare filters should be carried. My take on this is that in a real world situation in the middle of nowhere, how many of either filters would you have replaced before you can get help and at what cost? Then the entire fuel system needs to be flushed right back to the fuel tank. I'm sure I also share the same opinion with others when I say that either way you look at it, water anywhere in the system is very, very bad and the costly damage that ensues is the same should it make it's way to the injectors, even in small quantities.