Fuel Filter

What would be a good interval-mileage wise to replace ones fuel filter? I know the answer from most will be to check the owners manual but some manuals say to do the tranny fluid at 100k and we all know that to not be good.

I replace mine every 3 yrs/30k miles, but mine is easily accessible under the hood.
If yours is located in the gas tank, then you will likely have to postpone this maintenance until actual problems show up.

On vehicles that had a filter that could be changed I changed it about every 20k miles. The interval in the owners manual was like 60k miles.

And EVERY TIME I changed the filter it was FILTHY. You really can never change it TOO often.

Some car makers recommend to change the fuel filter and transmission filter at 35,000 mile intervals. Others at different intervals. One would follow the recommendations of one’s particular year, make, and model, as a minimum. No one can make recommendations, or advice, mandatory.

What’s worse is how gawd awful many vehicles these days do NOT have a changeable fuel filter !

Who’s twisted logic is this ??

I can’t agree more…and wife and I own two of them.

It?s not twisted at all.

Most new fuel systems are single-line systems to the fuel rail and only filter the fuel at the rate at which fuel is burned. The older fuel systems constantly circulated fuel up to fuel rail and back to the tank, placing a much higher demand on the fuel filter. For many vehicles today, the filters are designed to last as long as the fuel pump and only changed at that time. You could argue that more sediment may accumulate in the tank w/o the high filter rates of the older fuel systems, but from what I have seen this does not appear to be true.

As an example, our 97 Chrysler T&C has over 200K, and has never had the fuel filter changed, or fuel pump for that matter.

I have to disagree.

The older type systems…REMOVED the dirt/junk from the fuel system…The MODERN design keeps it there. May be GREAT for 200k miles…Well I keep my vehicles well past 200k miles…A couple well past the 300k mile mark. Replacing a $5 filter every 6-8 months is a LOT CHEAPER then what it’s going to cost me to drop the gas tank and replace the pump and filter in 3-5 years.

I suggest you keep driving old cars then.

I suggest you keep driving old cars then.

OBVIOUSLY that’s NOT possible. Car manufacturers are designing cars to last as long as the FIRST owner before needing some costly repairs. It’s GREAT that you only keep your cars to 200k miles. I tend to buy vehicles that last a lot longer.

Very very few cars go to the bone yard because someone followed the manufacturer’s recommended maintenance. Nearly all will end up there for other causes or because they failed to follow the recommended maintenance.

Where I live most cars go to the boneyard after 10-12 years because of structural rust which is why I don’t use synthetic oil. Regular oil, changed every 3000 miles will keep the engine running just fine longer than the car will last.