My dad went to have the fule filter and regulator replaced on his 97 Dodge Neon (127,000) since it has never been done and the car was running rough after the gas gauge got below half a tank. Well he was told you never change the fuel filter on this model car and it even says it on the filter, but you do change out the regulator. They made the change, so my question are there cars that never have to have the fule filter changed and was does the regulator do?
Hi,
I am the tech manager at Fram. The regulater controls fuel pressure to the injectors. Your fuel filter is in the gas tanl attached to the bottom of the pump and is designed to last the life of the car.
So if the regulater gets clogged up that is a problem?
I suppose that an FPR could get clogged up but their typical failure mode is to have their control diaphragm start leaking. Once this happens the engine’s vacuum is pulling raw fuel into the intake and the car runs poorly (and probably tosses codes) because it is running too rich. This is the opposite problem from having a clogged filter.
I guess I’d trust the motorking guy who mysteriously pops in once in a while (I’d imagine there is some fancy web crawler at work on his/her behalf reporting on relevant posts). But if you want to double-check ask an auto parts store to look up a filter for it. They’ll tell you whether or not what they come up with is in the tank or not.
I replaced the fuel assembly once on a Dodge Neon as a DIY project. The pump, regulator,and fuel level indicator are all one unit, inside the fuel tank. The fuel filter is separate. And it is true – the factory service manual says the fuel filter never needs replacing. The fuel filter on the '95 I mentioned is still original and the car runs smoothly after all these years.