2009 Kubota M9540 Fuel Filter C&P (factory filter)

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Our new to us 2009 Kubota M9540 was a one owner tractor that was bought new and traded back in at the same dealer by its original owner. It only had 573 hours on it when I picked it up at the dealer. It was supposed to have been fully serviced and field ready. The engine oil filter and hydraulic filters look to be new. On its first trip down the road it would bog down and only run 8-10 MPH at wide open throttle in road gear. I could tell it wasn’t getting enough fuel. The see through fuel/water separator looked good inside and didn’t have any water in it, it’s easy to tell if it has water in the bowl with dyed off-road diesel fuel. The spin-on fuel filter is tucked away towards the rear of the hood and painted the same color as the engine from the factory, it’s very possible that they simply overlooked it and only cleaned the separator. I removed the factory fuel filter and replaced it with a Carquest 86393, made by Baldwin. The tractor will now run at almost 21 MPH on the road as it should and has a lot more power. The Kubota replacement fuel filter number is HH166-43560, the OEM filter is a little longer than the aftermarket filter that it crosses to. I suspect that the Baldwin/Carquest filter will do just fine, Kubota calls for a change every 400 hours. I can get the Carquest filters for around 1/2 of the price of OEM filters. I cut the factory filter open (582.3 hours) and found a slimy black layer coating the outside of the pleats. The inside of the pleats was the color of new filter paper.
 

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Great write up and pictures. Diesel fuel has always seemed to be a dirtier fuel compared to gasoline in my experience.

Biodiesel use ramped up after the 2005 Energy Policy Act and it is well known to be an excellent cleaner. Across many different units at my workplace, we had HUGE problems with filter clogging following our switch to biodiesel. It was determined that the biodiesel was loosening up crud deposits on both on-site bulk storage tanks and equipment systems, resulting in accelerated filter loading. Besides the possible age of your filter, I wonder if the biodiesel cleaning effect added to the problem?

My workplace John Deere tractors get low annual hours (100 +/-) and JD recommends annual fuel filter changes. I change them every 2 years as preventative maintenance, placating my bias that diesel is potentially a "dirty" fuel and expensive injector systems are very sensitive regarding fuel quality.

Thanks for sharing.

Edit: From this link : https://www.wecleantanks.com/bio-diesel.html .... "Biodiesel has been known to break down deposits of residue in the fuel lines where petrodiesel has been used. As a result, fuel filters may become clogged with particulates if a quick transition to pure biodiesel is made. Therefore, it is recommended to change the fuel filters on engines and heaters shortly after first switching to a biodiesel blend."
 
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Great write up and pictures. Diesel fuel has always seemed to be a dirtier fuel compared to gasoline in my experience.

Biodiesel use ramped up after the 2005 Energy Policy Act and it is well known to be an excellent cleaner. Across many different units at my workplace, we had HUGE problems with filter clogging following our switch to biodiesel. It was determined that the biodiesel was loosening up crud deposits on both on-site bulk storage tanks and equipment systems, resulting in accelerated filter loading. Besides the possible age of your filter, I wonder if the biodiesel cleaning effect added to the problem?

My workplace John Deere tractors get low annual hours (100 +/-) and JD recommends annual fuel filter changes. I change them every 2 years as preventative maintenance, placating my bias that diesel is potentially a "dirty" fuel and expensive injector systems are very sensitive regarding fuel quality.

Thanks for sharing.

Edit: From this link : https://www.wecleantanks.com/bio-diesel.html .... "Biodiesel has been known to break down deposits of residue in the fuel lines where petrodiesel has been used. As a result, fuel filters may become clogged with particulates if a quick transition to pure biodiesel is made. Therefore, it is recommended to change the fuel filters on engines and heaters shortly after first switching to a biodiesel blend."
Possibly. I suspect that due to the low annual hours accumulated, this tractor was probably refueled with cans (presumably filled at a gas station) rather than a dedicated farm diesel tank with a filter of its own. It’s easy to contaminate your fuel pouring it into a tractor from cans. We have our own diesel tank for off-road diesel with a filter and have never had any issues with fuel quality. The place we order our fuel from uses multiple tanker loads of off-road diesel weekly, so I figure our fuel is cleaner and fresher than what you would get from the majority of gas stations or what have you. I’m purely speculating on the prior usage of this tractor, as I do not know the previous owner.
 
This makes me want to change the fuel filter on my tractor even though I'm having no issues. Mine is the factory filter still at 6 years old. Only 125hrs though. I did clean out the screen and the water separator though.
 
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