What Does a 300,000-Mile Fuel Filter Look Like?
It’s nobody’s favorite job in the world, but changing your fuel filter is an important part of vehicle maintenance. No matter if you drive an old carburetor-equipped Fox, an SN95 that doesn’t get driven much, or even an S197, that fuel filter needs to be changed regularly. However, what would happen if you did leave it on too long? Like say, about 300,000-miles too long? In the video below, ChrisFix shows us just that, and also how to change the filter on that old Windstar of his.
You may think that nobody in their right mind would let something like this happen. You’d be wrong. In my auto service years, I’ve seen many, many cases of drivers not even changing their oil after 50k miles, let alone a fuel filter. So, what does a fuel filter look like inside after 300k miles of use?
Yeah, it’s pretty nasty. Remember, those particles that get past your filter are going to the injectors, and you’re not even getting close to the right fuel flow. Even though he feeds the fuel backwards in the flow test, there is still a major restriction in the dirty filter over a new one.
So do yourself and your car a favor: change the fuel filter. It’s not the easiest job, but it’s an important one.