I change mine every 30,000. Its an 01 Ford Ranger 4.0 SOHC.
Frequency of Fuel filter change
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My 04 Civic is in tank and does not require service.
Obviously, a dirty fuel filter is the result of dirty gas. Usually only a small amount of trash is in any fill up of fuel so it's a slow process to restrict filter. Time period is usually long unless you get unlucky and fill up while transport truck is dumping. While bottom of storage tank is being "stirred" is when trash gets into pumpa and delivery lines at fuel outlets.
Most filters can be changed fairly easily and are pretty inexpensive. If your car doesn't fall into this generality, obviously your options are different but for the most of us changing fuel filter yearly is pretty inexpensive P. M.
Bob
Most filters can be changed fairly easily and are pretty inexpensive. If your car doesn't fall into this generality, obviously your options are different but for the most of us changing fuel filter yearly is pretty inexpensive P. M.
Bob
Honda specifies to change them based upon fuel pressure readings below spec. There isn't a time/mileage change interval since they removed them from the engine bay & put the sock in the tank. The sock can be removed through the access cover in the trunk, at least on the 6th generation Accord, so you're not dropping the tank.
Tech told me that a slowly clogging filter adds more demand on the fuel pump (to keep the necessary psi) and that shortens fuel pump life. $Expensive.
He said change the fuel filter every twenty K or after bad gas as someone else said.
He said change the fuel filter every twenty K or after bad gas as someone else said.
170k miles on my Mitsu. Never changed the filter. Truck runs great.
60,000 mile recomendation for my Subaru. The fuel filter looks like a small oil filter it's so big. Probably would go 180,000 miles unless contaminated fuel. Most modern cars I know of suggest 30-60,000 mile filter change.
What Hooch and others said. Many are life time items. Mine has been in there 140K and this is on a turbo car.
A quick check for a clogged filter or (any restriction) is to do a snap throttle test with the fuel pressure regulator sensing hose disconnected while monitoring fuel pressure. It should not drop more than 2 psi.
A quick check for a clogged filter or (any restriction) is to do a snap throttle test with the fuel pressure regulator sensing hose disconnected while monitoring fuel pressure. It should not drop more than 2 psi.
Possibly on a new returnless fuel system that uses pulse width modulation to control fuel pressure. If I am not mistaken if the pulse width goes too far out of spec vs the regulator feedback data to the PCM it will set a code and a ck eng light.
Older systems with in tank pumps have internal bypasses to keep the pump from creating enough overpressure to damage it, at least on paper. The only people I knew that had fuel filter problems were farmers and construction crews that filled up from portable tanks that had dirty fuel. Fortunately we weren't the dealership that had to deal with those customers. I feel for the dealerships in small towns in farm country, I have heard some horror stories.
The three vehicles were mid 90's Chrysler products with f.i.
Clogging of fuel lines used to be such a problem that the filters were in a clear plastic bulb so you could instantly identify the culprit. Then we learned about rusting if underground tanks (now we have fiber-glass)and we also learned about rusting gasline pipelines (cleaned out with PIGS}.Most bigger stations S/B changing filters right at the pump. I used to like SUNOCO for that reason as filter was right next to nozzle, but it was too expensive. If you buy your gas at larger major suppliers only then you may get away with out ever changing again. Being this is BITOG though I suspect that you like clean filters and it makes good automotive sense. I have a Toyota and they say life-time but I changed at 60,000 as filter was only $20.
If it is serviceable then 30K should be good for most. If not then when you have an issue or if you have to go there for another reason you can do it just because.
I'm amazed at how small the fuel filter is on my Yukon. I change it once a year and when I take it out, I can hardly blow through it. Once, I was driving to a buddy's house in the hills and the engine kept feeling like it was misfiring. I figured out that with the dirty filter, The engine was getting insufficient fuel to climb big hills. Now I swap the filter more like 9 month intervals.
2 days ago I rolled 200,000 miles on the Neon, still has the factory in-tank fuel filter.
In my f150 4.6L, I change it once a year. A 9 dollar part, its good maintenance, and takes 10 minutes.
I usually change it the same time as my 9 dollar air cleaner.
I usually change it the same time as my 9 dollar air cleaner.
Like Vilan said, frequency of changing your filter depends upon how much gas is going through it, all other things being equal.
Punisher listed a bunch of bad a fuel filter problem won't cause, but one bad thing a clogged filter will do is kill your electric fuel pump.
I had a '98 K1500 that had a fuel pump fail at great expense to me. The fuel filter was almost clogged at that point. Since I bought the vehicle used, I didn't know the history of filter replacement. After that, I changed the filter at 30k Km intervals, and it was usually difficult to blow through at that point. Of course, this truck was averaging about 14 MPG and as a result, huge amounts of fuel were being filtered by that filter.
The scary thing is, my 04 Avalanche has no user-serviceable fuel filter. It's part of the fuel pump within the tank. I guess you just have to replace the fuel filter everytime it takes out your fuel pump. Luckily for GM, this isn't likely to happen during the warranty period.
Somebody said this was due to emissions on 04's and up....but it just seems insane to me.
Punisher listed a bunch of bad a fuel filter problem won't cause, but one bad thing a clogged filter will do is kill your electric fuel pump.
I had a '98 K1500 that had a fuel pump fail at great expense to me. The fuel filter was almost clogged at that point. Since I bought the vehicle used, I didn't know the history of filter replacement. After that, I changed the filter at 30k Km intervals, and it was usually difficult to blow through at that point. Of course, this truck was averaging about 14 MPG and as a result, huge amounts of fuel were being filtered by that filter.
The scary thing is, my 04 Avalanche has no user-serviceable fuel filter. It's part of the fuel pump within the tank. I guess you just have to replace the fuel filter everytime it takes out your fuel pump. Luckily for GM, this isn't likely to happen during the warranty period.
Somebody said this was due to emissions on 04's and up....but it just seems insane to me.
Yes, I have the same setup on my 05 Trailblazer. I agree, seems insane to me too. I usually change the filters on my other cars about every 50-60K or 3 years. Talk about cheap insurance - it's 10.00 bucks and about 10 minutes of work - much easier to do in my garage than along the road somewhere. I'm amazed that some people change the oil every 3k, the transmission fluid every 15K, but let the fuel filter go for the life of the vehicle. Doesn't make sense to me.
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