No fuel filter?!!

[Reddog66]

I was looking thru the required maintenance for my new Yaris yesterday, and I couldn't find a task to change the fuel filter at ANY mileage. I finally dug into the shop manual and it appears that the only filter there is in the system, is buried in the gas tank, and from the looks of it, it's just a fine screen.

I can hardly believe that a modern fuel injected motor has no readily accessible fuel filter, and that it has no maintenance interval. If I got a bad load of gas, it would be liable to plug up all the injectors. It looks like a nightmare waiting to happen. Or have I missed something?

Pat

[ShawnM]

"Bad" gas is typically caused by water in the fuel not solid contaminants so a filter would do next to nothing for that. Most new cars (2000-current) do have filters but they are typically build into the fuel pump module and are considered non servicable or good for the life of the vehicle. It didnt seem like the best idea to me either but I have to admit we almost never see dirty injector issues any more.

[Reddog66]

Well, I must say that we don't see many dirty injector issues any more because most new vehicles DO have good filters. Call me paranoid, but I'd feel much better if there was a filter that was easily accessible and that I could change at regular intervals. There's no way to predict what kind of junk might get into a gas stations tanks. Look at the flooding happening in the mid-west right now. If water gets into the tank, what else gets carried in also?

Pat

[Steiglitz]

Originally Posted by Reddog66

Well, I must say that we don't see many dirty injector issues any more because most new vehicles DO have good filters. Call me paranoid, but I'd feel much better if there was a filter that was easily accessible and that I could change at regular intervals. There's no way to predict what kind of junk might get into a gas stations tanks. Look at the flooding happening in the mid-west right now. If water gets into the tank, what else gets carried in also?

Pat

1. The Yaris in fact does posses a fuel filter.
2. It is in the fuel pump embedded in the fuel tank.
3. It rarely will ever need replacing, but if it does, it can be done, and easily by removing the back seat, pulling back the carpet, and removing the pump which extends inside the tank. Not the easiest, but it can be done.

Like said before, this is not an issue because the filter will almost never get so clogged as to need replacing within the life of the car.

[Reddog66]

I wasn't looking for an argument, but you guys have obviously never had any bad fuel problems. The screen on the fuel pump is not what I would classify as a filter. And buried inside the gas tank isn't a very friendly place either.

All the fuel injected vehicles I've worked on in the last twenty years have all had the screen on the fuel pump to protect the pump itself from the big pieces, and also a bona fide inline filter somewhere else before the injectors. Even carbureted vehicles had inline filters.

Would you think a screen mounted on the oil pump and buried inside the crankcase is an acceptable "filter"? No, of course not! That's the same arrangement that Volkswagens had back in the sixties. So why do you think the same thing is OK for the fuel system? (that was a rhetorical question).

It appears that I may be the only one here who thinks this way...

Pat

[Steiglitz]

Originally Posted by Reddog66

I wasn't looking for an argument, but you guys have obviously never had any bad fuel problems. The screen on the fuel pump is not what I would classify as a filter. And buried inside the gas tank isn't a very friendly place either.

All the fuel injected vehicles I've worked on in the last twenty years have all had the screen on the fuel pump to protect the pump itself from the big pieces, and also a bona fide inline filter somewhere else before the injectors. Even carbureted vehicles had inline filters.

Would you think a screen mounted on the oil pump and buried inside the crankcase is an acceptable "filter"? No, of course not! That's the same arrangement that Volkswagens had back in the sixties. So why do you think the same thing is OK for the fuel system? (that was a rhetorical question).

It appears that I may be the only one here who thinks this way...

Pat

The filter in the tank is a replaceable and disposable filter and not a screen. There may well be a screen there too, but that part is not the filter.

The fuel injected systems of the past twenty years were more prone to fuel line clogging issues, and you really cannot compare those to the newer systems of today. If this was really an issue, then you'd have many many fuel related complaints here and on other Yaris forums, but you don't.

This is only an issue in your mind ;-)