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Fuel Filter replacement
Don't put the key in the ignition. You don’t want to make the pump turn on. If you are not used to working in an engine compartment or leaning over a battery, you can disconnect the negative battery cable and cover the battery with a dry towel or fender cover.
Take off the air duct assembly and move it aside. Clean the debris from the air box and replace the air filter if you like. There’s nothing wrong with taking off the bottom part of the air box to get more room to work, plus it allows you to just dump out the stuff that's lurking in the box. Have a can of throttle body cleaner handy and clean all around the butterfly valve, reaching in as deep as your middle finger can reach with a clean shop rag wrapped around it. I like to clean the IAC at the same time on most cars.
Loosen the banjo bolt fitting on the top of the fuel filter, near the left strut tower. You can wrap a cloth around the fitting if you like to catch any spurting fuel. Now, you have depressurized the system. Chances are, if the car is sitting from the night before, there will be very little pressure there.
You will need a flare nut wrench for the bottom tube fitting to prevent the nut from being damaged. A conventional wrench will “round off” a tube fitting very easily, because the nut distorts under the forces usually applied to solid fittings. I found it much easier to use a flare nut "crow's foot" on the end of a 3/8" extension (maybe 18" long) and a long handled 3/8" ratchet to break the bottom fitting loose. A snap-on "flank drive" or a similar design works very well on tube nuts, because it puts no force on the corners of the hexes.
Spray some penetrant, like PB Blaster, into the area where the tube goes into the nut, and on the exposed threads of the nut going into the fuel filter. The penetrant helps reduce the possibility of the nut remaining frozen to the steel fuel line, particularly in areas where road salt is used. If the line looks like it wants to turn with the nut, stop forcing it and apply more penetrant. Tap on the fitting to get it to wick along the threads and deep into the fitting along the line. Let it sit for a while, and come back to it. If you have to, loosen the bracket clamp and turn the filter while holding the nut and line. The one situation you DON'T want is to twist the steel line. As I mentioned in another post, we used to stock these lines because new techs would ruin them.
Work smarter, not harder.
There are larger hexes built into the fuel filter to keep it from turning, so put the proper open-end wrench on such a spot and have someone help you, or brace the holding wrench against some firm object so you can put turning force against it as the fuel filter tries to turn as you put force on the tube nut. The bracket that holds the fuel filter is generally not strong enough to take the force of breaking the tube fitting loose.
Looking “up” at the fuel filter from below, you are turning counterclockwise to loosen the tube nut. If you do all this from above (looking down from the engine compartment) you will appear to be turning the tube wrench (or “flare nut” wrench) clockwise.
You can use the red plastic inserts that seal the new filter during shipping to keep fuel from running out of the old filter. From below, the fuel will run along your arm to your armpit. It burns.
With the two fuel connections removed, you can take the entire bracket and filter off the car (10 mm bolts) and install the new filter into the bracket, orienting it the same way as the old so the two metal fingers that position the banjo fitting are in the same relative position. There is also a ridge in the side of the filter to help you get this right, and a long screw-clamp to hold the filter in place in the old bracket. Before screwing the tube fitting into the bottom of the filter, I like to take some anti-seize and smear it on the tube, with the nut pulled back from the flare, and I put a little on the threads, as well. That way, it’s easier to break everything free next time.
Get the tube fitting started first, and make it finger tight before fitting the bracket to the car. That way, you can wiggle the filter around to get the threads lined up. Then once the bracket is installed you can tighten the flare nut fitting with the two wrenches and install the banjo bolt with the new washers that came with the filter.
Reinstall the air duct assembly, start the engine, and check for leaks.
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Courage...Honor...Conquer
Last edited by timebuilder; 01-05-2007 at 09:38 AM.
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