Fuel Filter Replacement
Figured this was an easy enough task, and again, like many of my
repairs on this site, I've had never changed this out since I'd
owned the car at the time. Plus it was only $20 from local auto
parts store.
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1) First you need to relieve the pressure on the fuel lines. Do this by
removing the EFI 15A fuse (circled below, but make sure this is the right
fuse for you). This will disable the fuel pump.
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2) Crank the car, like you normally would when starting it. It should fail
to start, as there isn't any fuel pressure to feed the injectors. Try starting
the car about 7 times.
3) Jack up the rear of the car and support it on jackstands.
4) Crawl under the car, under where the battery sits on the driver's side.
You should see the below pic when looking up at the firewall. Remove the
circled banjo bolt with a 17mm socket. Have a rag or two covering the ratchet
and bolt as you loosen it, you may want to have a pan below the filter too.
Also, wear some goggles while doing this. Gas in the eyes burns nicely.
Once you break the bolt loose, you will get some sprayage of gas. If it
continues spraying fairly hard, tighten the bolt back up, and crank the
car a few more times to relieve the pressure some more. When fuel stops
coming out of the hose and filter, remove the banjo bolt completely.
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5) Now go back to above the car. Remove the battery, to allow you access
to the top banjo bolt on the fuel filter. You may be able to get to it from
the bottom, but I couldn't get the right leverage on the bolt from under
there. It's a 17mm as well. There shouldn't be much leakage of fuel here,
maybe a couple drops is all to worry about.
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6) Now you just need to remove the two 10mm bolts that hold the filter
to the firewall. You can then remove the filter, here it is:
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7) Remove the bracket from the old filter. There's just a long 10mm bolt
clamping it together.
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8) Place the bracket on the new filter, in the same orientation that it
was on the old. Here's a few pics to give you an idea of how it should be.
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Here you can see one of the 3 grooves in the bracket that line up with
the 'bumps' in the filter. It's fairly intuitive when putting it back on
how it's supposed to go.
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9) Now just install the new on in the reverse of how you removed it. Make
sure to use the new copper crush washers of course. One little note when
putting it back in. Don't tighten the bracket completely in place on the
firewall. Keep the bolts fairly loose, until you get both banjo bolts threaded.
Tighten the bracket down, then torque the banjo bolts to 22ft-lbs.
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10) Reinstall battery & the 15A EFI fuse.
11) Next, turn the ignition to the ON position but do not crank the car.
This turns the fuel pump on which builds the pressure back up in the fuel
lines. After about 10-15 seconds, crank the car. It may take a couple cranks.
12) Let the car idle, and check for any leaks around the banjo bolts.
13) Shut off car, and remove car from jackstands.
Only hard part here is gettin a good angle on the banjo bolts. Plus mine
were on there pretty dang good. Takes about an hour to complete.
Update, March 15, 2002
Here's some pics of the old fuel filter taken apart with hacksaw and the
help of a hammer and screwdriver:
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