DaleClark's 20 minute fuel filter change
 

Hey guys -

Been saying for quite some time that it really isn't that bad to change an FD fuel filter. Well, today I had a chance to put my money where my mouth was, I took pics and got some hints that might make it easier for you guys.

I timed it - start to finish was right around 20 minutes. Went nice and easy.

First, what you're gonna need.

- Safety glasses. Fuel dripping in your eye is no fun, and you'll also be likely to get some dirt and junk dripping down on you as well. Safety first, kids!

- WD-40. This is the key here. You have to use it to lubricate the rubber fuel lines to easily remove them. If you try to remove it dry, you'll be there a long time.

- Small pair of needlenose pliers.

- Regular size pair of regular flat nose pliers.

- Hose pliers suitable for the FD fuel filter lines. These things are the greatest thing since sliced bread. Harbor Freight sells these as well, get a pair if you don't have them.

- 10mm socket and extension. I usually use 1/4" drive for most 10mm stuff. The 1/4" drive gives you more maneuvering room. If you don't have a 1/4" setup, go get it.

Step 1

Jack up the rear of the car and support it on jackstands. If the car has been sitting for overnight, the fuel pressure in the system should be low. If it's not, start the car and pull the fuel pump fuse or circuit opening relay to kill the fuel pump. The car will stall out and the fuel lines will be depressurized. Also, remove the gas cap, pressure in the tank can push gas out.

Step 2

Remove the metal aero shield that's at the back of the car on the passenger side. You can also remove the plastic one on the driver's side, but it wasn't in the way for me at all.

Step 3

Find the fuel filter. It's above the diff, in front of the rear subframe. Once you find it, get your WD-40 can up in there and squirt some on the 2 fuel lines. You want to wet the end of the fuel line.

Step 4

Use the small needlenose pliers and slide back the hose clamp on the passenger side first (the one that goes to the metal line on the fuel filter that comes around the side of the fuel filter). With it slid back, get the hose pliers up there and twist the fuel line. It will be hard to twist at first and you'll hear a "squeaking" noise, but as you twist and as the WD-40 works in it will twist smoothly. Slide the hose down to where it's almost off but not all the way off.

Step 5

Get your 10mm ratchet and go up between the subframe and the gas tank. There are 2 10mm bolts that hold the fuel filter in place. You'll need to have the right size extension and socket combo to comfortably reach there. Break both loose then remove the 2 bolts.

Step 6

With the filter loose, you can pull it towards the passenger side of the car, allowing you to see the other hose clamp. Use the needlenose or the flat nose pliers to move the fuel clamp out of the way down the hose. Coming up from the passenger side of the diff, get the hose pliers on the hose, break it loose, then push it off. You can clamp onto the hose and pry it off by pressing against the fuel filter's body as a pivot point. Be prepared, once it comes off gas WILL be coming out. When it does, get out of the way and let it drip for a minute or so, then get back in there and take the fuel filter out of the car.

Yay! It's out!

Transfer the new filter filter to the bracket and reinstall. Just work your way backwards - put the driver's side hose on the filter first, then seat the hose clamp. Bolt the fuel filter in - get one bolt started, then get the other bolt started, then tighten both down. Install the passenger side line and clamp, put the rear belly pan back on, done.

Again, the trick is the WD-40 and the hose pliers. That's the hardest part of the job is getting the old hose off the fuel filter.

Let me know if you need clarification on anything.

Dale

Rest of the pics.

The joys of basic maintenance. Great writeup, Dale.

i need to do this before i make the road-trip back up to NY next month :D

Ditto. This was the first thing I did when I got my FD... 8 years ago :eek: I think its time to replace it :nod:

Nice write-up Dale. Its nice to see someone contributing some valuable information to these forums again. :icon_tup:

:bigthumb:

Superb writeup, I have been dreading replacing my fuel filter, but it looks like it really won't be as bad as everyone claims it to be.

i thought ur car was black?!? lol nice write up! dale ftw!!

guess i finally need to get a set of hose pliers.

very nice, thanks :)

Yep, my car is black - this was on a friend's car I'm working on. My car is also much less rusty :).

Every time someone has posted up a thread on relocating the fuel filter, I always think how it really doesn't take that much time to change the fuel filter. In the time it would take to do a fuel filter relocation I could change the stock fuel filter 3 times over. Considering it's something that's not done terribly often (I think Mazda's schedule is either 30,000 or 60,000 miles) I don't see the reason to re-engineer everything so a few years down the road you can save 10 minutes.

Later today I'll post up the length of the socket and extension I used - that's another thing that makes it go easy is having the right length extension to get to the 10mm bolts.

Dale

Nice write Dale guess I have a new task to do this week.

Nice addition Dale. I like to keep things that work well stock also.

By the way, do those stripes on your car make it look smaller? Or is just you?

Barry

Understood on the "Mazda schedule" however, I usually change mine about every 10K and it's pretty grosse even then. Steve Kan told me a few years back to replace mine annually since he claims that clogged filters and weak fuel pumps are one of the top problem issues he encounters when tuning customer cars. JMO!

Thanks for the writeup Dale. Nice job!!

Three reasons using an Aeromotive filter relocated on the rear subframe is superior to the stocker:

1) I can change it in 5 minutes, max. Three if I was timing it.
2) The Aeromotive simply outperforms the antiquated stocker, which is 50 to 100 micron, relatively coarse material and allows signifcant fine particulate to pass through to the injectors. The Aeromotive is 10 mircon, it catches more stuff, and it's a larger pleated element. Use what racers use, not cheap Mazda stuff. Clean, high pressure fuel delivery is critical, why not upgrade the filter with all the other stuff you have to replace on these cars?
3) Connections on the Aeromotive are threaded and 100% leak-free. I will never mess with those annoying pinch clamps in a fuel filter application (especially one that was so poorly located) again.

In short, keep the lame stocker is you're a cheap or a masochist, otherwise, chuck it straight into the garbage can with the plastic AST.

What a phrase. I couldn't agreed more along with the part to chuck it away with the plastic AST =)

-AzEKnightz

Thanks for the great writeup, Dale. Time for hose pliers for me, too!

(P.S. I replaced the (broken) original plastic AST at 98K miles with a stock AST, which now has 10K miles on it.)

I just took advantage of a clutch job to change the fuel filter... no ppf or driveshaft in place plus the diff hanging lower made it easy!

I can see the logic of upgrading to an aftermarket fuel filter, but 99% of folks won't do it. It's nowhere near as simple as a bolt-in AST, you have a decent amount of plumbing and bracketry that will need fab work, and if any of the plumbing is screwed up you could have a potentially dangerous fuel leak.

For me, the stock fuel filter has worked great, never had issues with it, and it requires no re-engineering to install a new one. The AST is an obvious problem :).

Dale

AHA! You know this is THE critical thing! I have approximately 13 different ratchets of various sizes, along with 37 different extensions, and no fewer than 4 different lengths of sockets and.....

Fuck all if NONE of them were the correct combination to get the 'right' length! :(

I agree 100% with your "20 minute" time to change IF you can come up with the right socket/ratchet combo. OTHERWISE it is a MAJOR pain in the ass, knuckle-busting bitch from HELL! :egrin:

Thanks for the how-to, will be doing this tomorrow.

In for when the time comes

this is such a PITA ! I'm at 1.5 hours now. Taking a lunch break. I have everything swapped, not just need to bolt filter back in place. Taking this job to dealership / shop next time.

Yeah maybe you should. 1.5 hours? You must suck at this mechanic stuff LOL! Now try installing a VMIC by yourself lol.

Maybe it's his first time doing it and not having the right too =]. Not everyone is born to do handy work like some of us do.

But I do think installing a VMIC is much labor intensive task =P.

-AzEKnightz

Im fairly mechanicly inclined... took me about 35 minutes the very first time I did it..


J.

Yeah you're right BTW I'm just joking with you doofy.

yes first time. Just bought the car last weekend. Sorry I'm not a pro at working on the FD yet, maybe it'll take me a month instead of a week?

I've built LS1's and srt-4's from the ground up so I do have mechanic ability. Just a lot different working on a FD and not being at my dad's workshop where he has almost every tool known to man.

so what IS the right size and combo for the socket and extension? Im heading out to Harbor Freight, and would like to know what the "secret" size is...

You will need at least one 6" (inch) extension and I would get two and a 3” (inch) extension because you will use them both eventually.
I did mine last week and it was no 20 minute job and I've done it before :)
One thing I did this time was cut a hole in a trash bag so fuel would not burn my chest, and it worked great plus I'm pretty sure I lost a few pounds under the car wearing a trash bag in 90 degree temperatures.:lol:

Nice write-up Dale. You, as always, are a great asset to the Rx7 community.

I replaced my fuel filter awhile back and I had a hell of a time just because its so damn tight down there around the diff. and my arms are apparently too big.. Being 6'3" 260 lbs and wanting to drive little 2 seater Rx7's has its pitfalls...I did find taking off the cat-back gave me some more space to reach around the diff, but I still scratched up both arms quite a bit before I resorted to it. FYI gasoline does not feel good on abrasions. I also ended up replacing the rubber hoses from the tank to filter and from filter to hard lines with new quality Goodyear fuel hoses as a precaution because those stock rubber lines were looking old and I didn't trust them. I was going to keep the filter in the stock location, as I didn't want my filter in the engine bay, but in the end I relocated the filter to the rear sub-frame as it just made more sense for me.... and my arms. It works great, its easily accessible and most importantly its in a safe location where it wont be damaged by road debris, speed bumps, or bottoming out. Knowing that my future fuel filter changes will only take literally a couple of minutes makes me, and my over-sized arms very happy.

Here's a couple of pics of the final location midpoint on the rear sub-frame. The only thing needed was a hose clamp, I even used the stock bracket..

Attachment 712556
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Great writeup
 

This worked perfect for me. It took about 30 minutes. Thank you soo much.

Luckily the guy I got my car from relocated it and so now it shouldn't be too bad to change it. But the advice with the hose pliers and wd-40 will definitely be much appreciated. Thanks man!

I ended up not needing the hose grip pliers or WD-40...both hoses slid off with minimal effort.

One thing I did need, however was a pair of side-cutters. Due to space constraints, the only way to grab ahold of one of the clamps was to grab it perpendicular to the hose. The other clamp I got with a small pair of needlenose pliers, gripping parallel to the hose.

While it isn't super convenient to do, it isn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. I feel that relocation is unnecessary, and totally inappropriate since, in the event of a major rear end collision, the filter would be crushed between the fuel tank and subframe, and would likely puncture the tank. I don't wish to be trapped inside a burning car if at all possible.

Took me less than an hour. I already had all of the tools mentioned earlier and the tips/instructions really helped.

The right size setup for the wrench is a 3/8ths drive with a 3 inch extension and a 10mm 'short' (standard size, not deep well) socket...

I changed my fuel filter today, and I wanted to pass on a few tips, here in this excellent write up.

1) make sure you have 90* tip pliers
2) make sure you have hose pliers.
3) lube the new filter with wd40 before you put it back in

All I had was some needle nose pliers and the stock hose clamps are such that it's nearly impossible to pinch them with needle nose from straight on. It took me 2 hours to change mine. Next time it will be much easier. I was this [ ] close to walking to the hardware store to get the right tools.

My car immediately idled better. I suspect the previous filter was installed 157,xxx miles ago in Japan. :smh:

Dale, Next time you are at my place, I'm going to utilize your experience and your long ass arms to do my fuel filter :)

20 minutes eh....

Just did this for the first time since owning FDs. I usually take it to the local rotary shop and let them earn their money. Took me 2 hours and I took a nice shower in fuel. If I were to do it again, I think it would still take me 2 hours.

I just don't see how you can do it so quickly but am envious...

Wish I could have some one do it and move mine to the sub frame or something

Two hours is about how long it took me too. It really depends on how cooperative the hoses are.

20 minutes just the get the car on jack stands and have a barley pop. What's the rush? Good info! I am doing mine soon with the rear diff replacement.

I don't think I am going to relocate though. Gas is not something to put in harms way.

Thanks for posting.

It was a super easy job with these tips
It would've been easier if my hose pliers weren't so long lol
Thanks Dale

I used Dale's instructions and start to finish in under an hour. I used a lift at the auto craft shop on a military base. I even fixed an exhaust leak and was out under 1.5 hours. Thanks for this awesome right up!

Glad to help! I'm just trying to get the word out that this isn't some crazy impossible task like people make it out to be.

Dale

Excellent tips in this thread! But.... FFFFFFF************KKKKKK this was a PITA. WD40 is the magic weapon here. Just spray that stuff on everything; the clamps, the hoses, the nipples of the new filter, everything.

Good tip. I'm going to tackle this on Saturday. I guess I should spray WD40 the night before to soak it in. I looked at my FF and it doesn't look like its ever been changed! We'll see tomorrow.

You don't really need to let it soak in, you really want to work when the WD-40 is still wet.

Dale

I'd still rather have fire ants invade my privates than change the friggin' fuel filter! Dale, you must be double-jointed or something or just 'right sized' for the job to be able to do it so "easily"...lol!

When I changed mine I was doing other maintenance (diff + tranny fluid change). I had a tough time getting the fuel filter out cause of the hoses. Putting the new one in I prepped myself for a long battle. Went back on in like 5 minutes. I was surprised.