Fuel filters do you ever change yours?

[Rotary-Motion]

hi bods

just wanting to talk car/van fuel filters do you ever change them due to blocking? or only for regular servicing?

i used to have to change my filter on running 100% vegetable oil between 1000/3000 miles on my peugeot 406 1.9TD

now i have given up almost thinking about it and not worrying about carrying spares or the tools to change it now, i have done at least 14,000/15,000 miles and higher (gave up counting a while back) on a good old sausage filter as i like to call them as they are the shape of a sausage so to speak, basically an inline filter of a higher micron say 40/50 micron or something, and the car still runs like i have a new filter in her.

bang crackin tidy peeps 

heres the filters in question friends...

note i only use plastic mesh type, 6 inches long main barrel part without feed ends (paper are too finer micron and implode, never use um on veg oil)

[Tony]

I use a slightly stumpier version of that before my main filter.

Little known to me at the time but I had a weak fuel pump in the Delica that would stall given even the slightest inlet restriction, so the smallest hint of soap or HMPEs and I'd be changing a filter at the roadside.  I must've got through 8-10 filter changes before the pump failed entirely, and the replacement pump is a different beast altogether.  Now I change the fuel filter no more frequently than the pre-MOT yearly service.

[Chug]

I used to use a pre filter of 25 micron rating but over the last few years and motors I haven't bothered, I now change the filter when it's starting to block, which depending on my fuel and how well I filter has ranged from just a few hundred miles (soapy batch I thought I'd filtered but seems maybe I didn't!) to many thousands of miles.

[Carrington]

I think the best I got was over 30k. The worst ever was when working on my black bio and got about 100 yards outside the trading estate. I could real do with putting a clear inline filter in the fuel line as a way of testing new stuff. 1 bonus though I can use my old forklift truck filters with a simple mod and they only cost £5.20

[nathanrobo]

When I first started making bio (probably for the first year or more), I had to change filters all the time, every couple of months.  Now, I never get blocked filters, but I have occasionally done it as part of a full service.

[1958steveflying]

I have changed a filter due to Hmpe's, on my camper which had a full tank in it from the nicer weather Duh.... I don't leave it full anymore ! ! Other than that it's my policy to replace all filters etc annually for what they cost.

[Keef]

i have done at least 14,000/15,000 miles and higher (gave up counting a while back) on a good old sausage filter as i like to call them as they are the shape of a sausage so to speak, basically an inline filter of a higher micron say 40/50 micron or something, and the car still runs like i have a new filter in her.

I don't understand why, if you filter your oil to 1mic, you have so much trouble with a standard Peugeot/Citroen filter which is 5-10mic and have to resort to a 40/50mic filter which roughly speaking only filters out debris that is large enough to be visible to the human eye.

There must be something wrong with your filtering setup. Are you sure your fancy filter rig is filtering it down to 1mic correctly and not just pumping the crap straight through the filters?

By contrast, the only filtering I have been doing since March is dropping well settled oil through six layers of bed sheets and straight into the car. I haven't had to change a filter in 15,000 miles and I'm using the same Peugeot/Citroen filter setup that your 406 had.

[Rotary-Motion]

hi there keef

and good question, my oil turn round from picking up rubbish to me driving round useing is only 2 weeks.

also it could be my perticular car? as my neighbour who had the same car got many more miles than me, and so did i in my old 405.

but none of us got 15,000 out of 1 filter, although i did get a few thou once due to the filter element breaking off the steel top hat in the filter houseing (heat breaks glued paper off steel) so fuel was going in with no filtering at all.

prolly upto 20,000 now at a guess and a couple in the van too. so it must love the lard

[Jmg]

I change mine when the van struggles for power, hard to tell exactly when that is in a 70ps tranny. My filtering system leaves a lot to be desired too but frankly I barely have time to collect/filter oil let alone modify my setup but I'm getting at least 3000 miles between changes so it'll do for me.

[Rotary-Motion]

I change mine when the van struggles for power, hard to tell exactly when that is in a 70ps tranny. My filtering system leaves a lot to be desired too but frankly I barely have time to collect/filter oil let alone modify my setup but I'm getting at least 3000 miles between changes so it'll do for me.

 

[whitep]

I do mine every 5000 miles or when it struggles uphill. I once only managed about 500miles once but that was down to poorly filteres stuff I picked up.

[Rotary-Motion]

havent changed mine for ages now, running very sweet and its 1000's upon 1000's of miles and no losss of power at all...

[Tony]

Did over 10k on one filter but this winter the waxing got me good.  Nearly didn't make it into work.

But now I'm on a 10" housing I'll be changing them whenever the fancy takes me