For people with car/cars older then 2006..have you ever changed your FUEL FILTER? (F150, vehicles)

[Nlambert]

I can name off a host of people that I work with who have never opened their owner's manual. It's not that uncommon.




I change the fuel filter on my wife's gas burner at the recommended intervals. If she begins to lose mpg I will change it sooner. There are places around here with dirty fuel which will effectively reduce flow through the filter. As for "feeling" a difference, none really.


I change the fuel filter on my Cummins engine every 15k miles. As another poster mentioned, diesel is extremely dirty. I do run a fuel additive (Power Kleen) but still stick to the 15k mile interval.

[DutchessCottonPuff]

Yes and I have a filter obsession especially the fuel filter and have it changed once a year no matter what and I am a girl . For many years, well since I was 16 ( am now 53 ) I drove mainly 1 ton- 5 speeds due to having to make a living on the road with my horses . So I learned early about changing every filter on any vehicle . Drives me NUTS that my dutch born husband sees no need in this It can prevent alot of issues .

Yes I go to this one Jiffy Lube and yes they laugh when I pull up but it gets done ! Sometimes they will send me away without charging me or doing anything I stay so on top of it .

[GeoffD]

My service interval for the fuel filter is 72,000 miles. The RACOR on my diesel in the boat and the small fuel filter on the block get replaced every year.

[animalcrazy]

My car is an 02 with 58k miles on it. I use only premium gas and have oil changes every 2 to 3k miles. I'm not 100% sure if the fuel filter has ever been changed. I'll ask our mechanic the next time we take the car in, which is almost never. It still runs fantastic either way.

[J Baustian]

The VW owners manual recommends replacing the fuel filter every 40k miles (as I recall). I substituted a Caterpillar 2-micron fuel filter for the OE 15-micron filter when my Golf had about 50k miles, and have replaced that filter about every 70k-80k miles since then. It costs less than the OE filter, it is bigger and does not need replacement so often, and it's done an excellent job of protecting the injection pump and the injectors. For example, many other VW TDI owners had to replace the IP at least once in the first 300k miles; but I have gone twice that far on the original one.

Regarding the original question: If you're replacing your original inferior fuel filter with an identical one, you're not going to see a huge benefit. It's probably not a bad idea to do it, but it's not the best thing you can do.

[Dopo]

I did it on a Volvo S70 that I had when it had about 100k miles and it made a big difference.

[Hedgehog_Mom]

I had the fuel filter replaced when the fuel pump went out on my 99 Silverado last year, at about 230,000 miles. It didn't make a difference in performance, except of course the truck wouldn't run when the fuel pump went out. While I was having that done, I had the gas gauge fixed. It had been broken since I bought the truck a few years ago. Having the gauge working is really nice. When you have a Chevy truck, you just get used to little broken things and quirks, so it's nice when you get it fixed and it feels like a normal vehicle again.

[WouldLoveTo]

1986 Ford. Change it every year so I never notice a difference. It's part of the tuneup for me.

[hotzcatz]

I've had a couple of cars and motorcycles which didn't have a fuel filter but added one which improved things to no end. Those were mostly pre-1990 vehicles, though. '83 Suzuki bike & a '77 MGB, I think the Honda motorcycle got a fuel filter added, too, I forget after a couple of decades of what was done to which. I always like the see through glass/plastic fuel filters if I can find them. Much easier to see if they're dirty that way.

[Larry Caldwell]

Yes. It's part of my 100,000 mile service list.