Hi, I wrote the following piece which was printed in The Citroenian magazine, I hope it is of use. I used a standard leather strap wrench to remove the oil filter and as is my practice tightened the new one firm hand tight; never had a problem in 40 years getting them off again. Servicing – Changing Oil & Filter; 2.2 HDi Recommended at 12,500 miles, but Haynes recommends 6,000 miles. This is fairly straightforward to do. I raised the front of the car slightly on axle stands to give room to work underneath. First, remove the undertray. This is secured by small bolts at each side and by fasteners at the front and rear. The fasteners look like screws, but you only need to turn them through 90° and then gently pull the tray down to release them. The oil drain plug is situated at the rear of the sump on the back facing vertical side and needs a 8mm Hexagonal Bit Socket (looks like an Allen Key) to fit in it and turn. Unscrew it and let the oil flow into your container, this is best done after a run with the engine still warm so that any solid matter is suspended in the oil and flows out of the engine. Whilst this is draining, remove the oil filter with a strap wrench, clean the mating face and replace it with a new one having wipe some clean oil onto the rubber seal and tighten hand tight. When the oil is fully drained, replace the drain plug with a new copper washer, refill with a quality oil (I get mine from GFS with the club discount it is very reasonable), taking care not to overfill. Start the engine, check for leaks as it warms up, if all is OK replace the undertray. The only difficulty is the position of the drain plug as it cannot be seen unless you go right underneath, and it is fiddly to replace the plug just by feel. Incidentally, when I bought the car, it had a full dealer service yet the oil went black quite quickly, so I have been changing it after about 6,000 miles, yet it still goes black; I was told that this happens with diesels. Last time I changed it, when I was reaching to put the drain plug back, I accidentally dropped the copper washer and did not notice this until I had poured the new oil in! The first time this has happened in forty years and no doubt due to the awkward position of the plug. Anyway, I decided to put a container under the plug, remove it, put the washer on and replace it before all the oil had run out! Sounds a bit hairy, yet it went so smoothly that I only lost just over a cupful of oil – almost unbelievable. The point of the story though is that the oil that came out was BLACK and was just turning to oily green as the plug went back. It therefore seems clear that the plug mounting in the rear sump wall does not allow all of the old oil to drain out, which is no doubt why new oil goes black so quickly. In my case the front of the car was raised a little so this would have aided the old oil to drain, so it might be worth pouring some flushing oil in before replacing the plug to clear the old oil out. Changing the Diesel Filter; 2.2 HDi Recommended at 25,000 miles. First remove the engine top cover (four 10mm dome head nuts) and pull it away from its clips. If the engine undertray is in place, this needs removing too. You need to unclip the electric socket and clip it out of the way, then, remove the three fuel pipes in turn by depressing the coloured bar and sliding them off. With the new filter, you should have some blanking plugs, so fit these to the pipes to prevent dirt ingress. If you do not have these, then use cling film and clip or tie the pipes out of the way. The outer, knurled rim of the filter top unscrews. I used a standard oil filter strap and found that it easily turned. Remove the filter top with the old filter and away from the car pull the filter from the top and remove the rubber sealing ring. The filter body will still contain some fuel and possibly some water at the bottom and any trapped dirt. This all needs cleaning out using cloths – but I might buy a cheap turkey baster next time to draw the fluid of. Fit the new filter seal and filter to the filter top, place it into the filter body, engage the outer screw ring so that it is not cross-threaded and screw firmly home. The filter now needs priming. The other C5s are described in Haynes and have such things as lever primimg devices, however the 2.2 HDi does not. The recommended way to prime it is to connect the fuel feed pipe to the filter then using a special pipe available from Citroen, connect the filter outlet to the return. I did not choose to purchase this pipe so I ‘loose fitted’ a suitable piece of plastic tube to the filter outlet and then ran this into an empty jamjar. The filter is simply primed by turning on the ignition;you will hear the pump work for a few seconds. Turn the ignition off and on again a few times until diesel flows from the outlet. Then turn off the ignition and reconnect the outlet and return pipes to the filter. The engine should start straight away. Check for leaks, and if all is well replace the engine cover and the undertray if this was removed. Enjoy your 2.2 HDi, best wishes, Bob H.
