bicol-ini

hello, got free time last week, replaced my fuel filter, and whoa surprise, inlet side was full of debris when i cut the filter into two to inspect, anyways car seems to accelerate much better due free flowing fuel line, a caution if you gonna DIY make sure get a pan that hold at least a gallon, thas almost what i got, loosen one side at a time, took about 30 min to completely drain fuel on the line. tool, 19mm 17mm 14mm and 8mm for the filter clamp, filter location is just off to the right ogf the differntial, took some pix but having difficulty uploading,

Trexus

What year is your car and how many miles are on it? Good job on replacing the filter on your own. I do all my all changes and I get a great satisfaction from doing it.

SharpLS-96

States it right there in his signature.
A 96 and seeing that he just joined a few months ago he most likely has close to 130,000 miles or so.

ychachad

Thanks for the informative post, with the filter location and the tools needed. I am assuming that the location is based on the fact that you are looking from the rear of the car, right? That is different from the Gen 1 location which is in the wheel well of the rear driver side wheel. Am I correct on that? I plan to change filters in both my Gen 1 and Gen 2 as soon as the snows go away.

nthach

it's not a hard job at all. Just spray the flare fittings with WD-40 the night before and you'll be fine.

bicol-ini

hello, the filter location is based on a 96 ls400 which is located just right side of the differential if youre facing forward, i think for gen 1 its on the driver side just by the wheel well, not sure, though, good luck

Lexushead

What other solution or chemical can I use to remove the fittings?
I tried WD-40, Liquid Wrench, the PB stuff from Menards ( I can't remember the name). I let it sit over night. I used open end wrench; round off the flare. I used vise grips; they bit into the flare and started to strip. I gave up and return the new filter back to NAPA. Is there any hope of replacing the filter without replacing the entire fuel lines?
Thanks 92 LS 250k

gtfour43

Sometimes getting off these filters requires more than an open end wrench. They sell tubing wrenches that actully have more grip on the fittings so you dont strip them. My brain isnt working very good this early in the morning but I think its called Flare nut wrenches. Anyways its almost like the closed end of a wrench but one small section is cut out to fit over the line but still giving it a good grip on the fittings.

PERRYinLA

Just finished this awful chore, and also had problems with the soft metal of those flare connectors. I was ready to give up until I borrowed my neighbor's pipe wrench- that did the trick.

damon

How often are we supposed to be changing this?
I'm guessing that mine is original & closing in on 200K!!

Sixdown

Ditto...I just bought my car, and the fuel filter is probably the stock one. Most people don't even think to replace the fuel filters.

TJW98LS

iTrader: (1)

Id also like to know how often these should be changed.

PERRYinLA

Alas, there is no definitive answer. It all depends upon the cumulative cleanliness of all the tank fulls of gas that have run thru the filter.

If you are lucky and have always run clean gas, the filter truly is a lifetime filter and there's no need to change it.
That was the case with me, but I didn't know it, since there is no way to check- gasoline is the one product that you buy, but never see.
I ended up changing a perfectly good filter. Once it was off I hacksawed it open and unraveled the filter medium- it was spotless.

On the other hand, if you are unlucky and fill up with a tank or two of contaminated gas, you might need to change the filter, even if your filter was brand new! Fortunately, that is very rare, if you stick with the larger, company-owned/operated stations of the major brands.

Back when cars had carburetors, the fuel lines were not pressurized and so many filters were made of transparent plastic- it was easy to check how clean they were. No such luck anymore.

So aside from experiencing obvious symptoms of a clogging filter, like running out of power at higher speeds, there's no set interval for changing our filters. But given how difficult the change procedure is, I can see why some would like to say it is a lifetime filter.

I hope I never have to change mine again and that would be my general recommendation - unless you have some good reason to suspect it is clogging, I'd leave it alone.

Lexushead

Comforting to hear that, Perry. I tried to remove my old one and the flare connector won't come loose. I used the vise grip and still didn't work. The vise grip teeth bit into the soft metal and started to strip. I stopped before it got worse. I sprayed wd40 everyday for a few days and still didn't work. So, I resort to,"don't fix what's working".

Lexozz

I've never had mine changed, this is another job from HELL. Mechanics I've spoken to don't even like to mess with it. I say pour some fuel cleaner in your tank periodically and you should be fine. I have over 280,000 on my '95 with the original FF and I still feel the power.