Following hot on the heels of the "wildly" "popular" sway bar replacement post, here's my much quicker, much less sweary fuel filter replacement.
My car had been starting pretty rough. My BiL suggested that a clogged fuel filter could be impeding the fuel pump from creating the initial flow of gasoline from the tank to the engine until a sufficient siphon could be created to help the pump by pulling the fuel into the engine. Seeing that a replacement filter was $8, I figured it was worth a shot.
First things first, I jacked up (then jack standed [jack stood?]) the rear end. My fuel filter was located on the driver's side, about the mid-point of the back door and about 18-24" in from the edge of the car. I obtained a big thing of cardboard from the pallets at work to facilitate sliding in and out, and crawled on under.
My initial step was going to be to clamp the fuel lines on either side of the filter. Note "was going to be". Turns out the downstream fuel line was metal, which precluded my being able to clamp it off. I hit the nut with some penetrating spray and let it sit, because it was time for Plan B...
Which was to burn as much of that fuel as possible. To do so, I clamped the upstream rubber hose and pulled the fuel pump fuse. After doing so, I started the car and let it run until it died. I tried to turn it over for a few more seconds after that just to get as much fuel out of the line as possible, but without overdoing it.
After that was accomplished, all that was left to do was to undo the nut on the downstream side and unclip the plastic clip on the upstream side (clearly visible here on the right). Both easier said than done. Whoever put in the filter I was removing put the upstream hose on pretty poorly, so one of the plastic clips did not want to cooperate. I carefully wiggled that off, cognizant that I still needed the fuel line end of things intact. However, that unleashed the flood gates.
Now that the fuel line wasn't under a vacuum anymore, the remaining fuel in the line came gushing out. I should have been more aware of where I was and where my tools were. My wrenches, not to mention myself, needed a good rinsing afterwards. Also, it sucks to lay in fuel. My scalp got a little irritated. With a little muscle, the old nut came loose on the fuel line and the filter was free. I removed the holding bracket and slipped the old one out.
I'm not convinced the fuel filter had ever been changed, but I haven't scoured the service records to confirm that. The nut was so rusted and the filter so beat that it wouldn't surprise me. Anyway, the reverse was fairly simple. The nut went smoothly into the new filter, and I was careful to get the plastic clip seated properly. All that was left was to clean up.
Here's the new filter in place, all hooked up and secured. The car seems to start much more smoothly now. Of course, I'm always suspicious of a sort of placebo effect when I work on stuff like this. But even if it's not starting as smoothly as I seem to be imagining, the filter definitely needed changing out anyway.
Remember that gas shower I mentioned? These are my glasses afterwards. You can (sorta) see all the dried gasoline that would have been in my eyes. Safety first, y'all!
Here's post two in the series for y'all.
I just want to take this opportunity to gloat that the fuel filter in my car is in about the most accessible spot I've ever seen:
I would also like to take this chance to complain that the clamp holding it in is a god damned nightmare, though.
That is quite handy. Which clamp there is the bad one? That thing at about 1 o'clock looks like a hassle.
That clip on top is actually perfectly simple and easy to get in and out.
The issue is the one that actually holds the whole filter body to the car. Its not so much a clamp as a bracket. Its not visible, and I'm having a hard time thinking of a way to describe it. Its like a compression clamp with a bolt that keeps falling out because its impossible to get two hands in there, one to hold and one to tighten. I almost test drove it to the pet store to punch some kittens.
So what are the odds that my 1998 Buick Lesabre would be more or less an identical procedure?
I get a rough start no infrequently, usually after having recently run the engine (say, coming out from quick stop at the store). Is this similar to what you were experiencing?
I'd guess the procedure would be fairly similar. According to the O'Reilly website they take the same filter.
Mine started better the more recently it had been started. The more it had sat, the harder the start.
I find myself interested in some advice here... My 2003 Grand Prix has separate environmental controls for driver and passenger sides. For the past year the passenger side has kicked out heat (very high heat) no matter where the settings are at. Not all the time, though. At first it would kick in after we'd been driving for a while. Then it started happening more frequently. Then all the time. Then it was winter and a non-issue. Then it was spring, and I took it in. They thought it was a little mechanical thing that turned something else, so they replaced that. It worked for about a month. Now it's back to where it started, with it only blowing heat some of the time, usually after I've been driving for a while...
Anyone have any thoughts? It makes me feel like it's got to be something electrical since it would be more consistent of it was mechanical, right?
My first reaction would be to check the thermostat, either the connection or the unit itself. If the climate control is getting a faulty reading, the output will correspondingly be faulty.
In my own experience, occasionally my old car would sputter wildly for no reason. I tired new spark plugs, fuel injector cleaners, abs a few other things. Turned out, I had a bad O2 sensor connection and thus the computer was mixing my fuel incorrectly.
damnit. Too slow.
My question here is that the drivers side still does AC, so could thermostat still be the thing?
Yes. If you get heat no matter what from the passenger controls, then the thermostat could be registering a temperature that is too low. I assume there is a limit how low you can set the desired temperature, so that limit just has to be higher than what the thermostat registers.
I listened to Click & Clack for years, so my expertise says "maybe a thermostat?"
Some of Mag's other work
I wish I had that kind of tennis ball budget.
the seat belt jury-rig took me back.
Way back when, my buddy managed to screw up the front-passenger seat belt on our family car, which had by then pretty much morphed into my car (he hooked it on the door handle and got the goddamn thing stuck so that I couldn't extend the belt to get it undone; dumbass!) such that I had to cut the belt. Good times.