Hey Guys,

I want to change my fuel filter, I know where it is and the bolts are already lose. The problem is that the fuel just wants to keep coming out and since the sc300 has hard lines you can't clamp them.

I read about how some people said to run the car with out the fuel pump fuse, so it runs dry and then change it but some of the posts said that and didn't try it. If that’s what I have to do then ill do it. I want some facts rather than people who say it but have not tried it.

Just give me a quick run-through of the correct procedure.

Thanks

 

I did it on my SC400 by running without pump until stall and then disassembling. It is wrong to think you won't have A LOT of fuel coming out of the lines. Disabling the pump stalls the car when the fuel pressure falls below a certain level but the lines are still full of fuel. I would guess that I got about 2 quarts in all and because it starts running as soon as the couplings are loose, a lot of it ends up running down your arms and into your arm pits and then to the floor. Overall a very ugly and hazardous job. Unless you have a place far away from any flame or spark generater, I'd suggest you skip it or let a pro do it.

By the way, my old one was very clean and wasn't restricting the flow at all after 60K miles.

George

 

I just loosened it up, spent 5 minutes figuring out how to take it off while fuel was freezing my hands (very cold), finally got it off and put the new one on. It looks easy to take off, but all I remember was that there was a tricky part that suddendly shows up when you start moving the filter.

I had a potato salad bucket which is around half a gallon and it overflowed, so I had to get another one. I lost about a gallon of fuel, but I used some of it on my lawn mower. Try and use those Nitrile gloves- unlike latex, I don't think they get affected from petroleum,

 

Yeah, the tricky part is that the coupling nuts get very hard to turn once the gas starts flowing. I don't know if this is because of metal expansion or something to do with the fuel flow itself. Ugly job.

George

 

Filter change:

Open trunk. Pop off back panel. Disconnect fuel pump. (plug with 2 wires)

Start car, stall. Start car, stall. Start again, Stall a third time.

Jack up car on FRONT driver's side. You need the jack stands over there so you can work on the filter in the rear. Get under the fuel tank and there's two SOFT lines from the tank that leads to the hard lines. Get a needle nose vice grip and clamp the one that does a 90 degree bend and is like 3 to 4 inches long.

Now your line is clamped. Get a 14mm flare nut wrench, and a large adjustable wrench. Don some gloves that don't melt (neoprene?) with fuel (latex melts) and undo the front side (exit) first.

Put a catch basin under you, you will be leaking fuel and it eats driveways.

Unbolt filter from bracket.

Pull the filter down slightly. Undo intake side. Remove filter and put in intake side down in a cup so you can see the crap come out of it.

Install new filter on oulet side first. It's a pain to torque down, it feels like you are cross threading it. It gets REAL hard in the middle then gets easy. Very carefully thread the filter on and make sure you really aren't cross threading it. Torque it. Mount it back in bracket.

Connect intake side. Torque.

Unclamp fuel line, reconnect fuel pump, re attach back panel. Lower car.

Get in, start, check for leaks at the filter, and the line you clamped. Empty catch basin in neighbors yard LOL kidding. If no leaks, drive car around, get some RPMS in there, stop and check again. If no leaks, You're done.

Check cup to see the crud that came out of your filter. Mine looked like a cup of arab coffee. For those that aren't familiar with it, it's got a black silty mud on the bottom you're not supposed to drink.

That should be it. It's a crap job, I hated it, but it's very possible to do.

Good luck!

 

nice write up. Fuel filter came in this week, going to try and do this, this weekend

thanks

 

Don't forget the step of loosing or removing the fuel filler cap to remove any pressure built up in the fuel tank. This is prior to opening the system. Just be sure to retighten it prior to restarting engine or check engine light may result.

 

cool thanks

 

wow this is from a long time ago, ya cleanSc write up worked pretty well. I found a soft line clamped it and then replaced the filter.

pretty easy to do.

 

Glad to help.

 

Thanks for the great write up, Jose- I followed your steps to change out mine today. Here are my notes, in case it helps others in the future (although this is one job that begs to be outsourced):

- By waiting until the "low fuel" light came on before taking on this job, the fuel level was so low that only about 2 quarts drained before the flow stopped.

- I raised the front of my SC on ramps, and had a jack stand holding up the rear driver's side to give me more room to work under the car.

- My flare wrench was so small that to generate the torque required I had to rig up an "extension" of garden hose, rag and PVC pipe (see pic). Make sure your flare wrench is centered right on the connectors and use caution with each pull or push of the wrench, especially when the torque gets real hard. One slip, and the soft edges round off and then it's vise grips/pipe wrench time. <-- the voice of experience

- My new filter came with the mounting bracket attached, but to use it you have to remove the old bracket held on with 3 bolts, only 2 of which are easy to remove. The 3rd I found too hard to bother with, so I used the old bracket with my new filter.

- While not as thick as Arab coffee (or even my beloved espresso), the gas that came out of my inlet side was cloudy, so the filter was doing its job (see bottom pic - that's from my 92 with 92K, all gas bought in So Cal).

 

Hahah nice write-up, Perry. Another satisfied member.

 

i'll be doing this tomorrow.. wish me luck...

 

does anyone know which fuel filter is best to use?
there's three different kinds on NAPA, but i dont know which one is best.
and also, whats the torque spec for the bolts?
here's a link to NAPA for those of u that want to see the filters they have.
thanks.
http://www.napaonline.com/MasterPage...lter&VehCode=Y

 

Excellent write-up CleanSC! Worked wonderfully for me today. Had everything done in about an hour. And that was in my garage without the help of the lifts at work.