How Much Does It Cost To Replace A Fuel Filter

Replacing the fuel filter in your car is a pretty standard bit of maintenance that you should get taken care of regularly. Luckily, compared to many repair jobs that yous can exercise on your motorcar, replacing the fuel filter is fairly cost-effective. It volition probably cost you betwixt $50 and $175 to become your fuel filter replaced by a mechanic.

Auto Repairs Are EXPENSIVE

Apparently, there is going to be a range of costs based on where you alive in the country, and the make, model, and year of your vehicle. The fact is that repairs done in Beverly Hills are probably more than expensive than repairs that are washed in small town Montana. As well, if you're driving around in a Toyota Corolla, the cost of replacing a fuel filter will probably be different than the toll of replacing the fuel filter if you're driving a McLaren F1.

Even inside the aforementioned town, the cost of jobs like this can vary greatly. A lot of businesses will offer deals on things like fuel filter replacements if you're going in to get other work washed. And no uncertainty that you lot've already noticed what i mechanic charges tin be profoundly dissimilar from one another mechanic in town charges.

We always recommend doing your due diligence and researching the mechanic before yous get any chore washed, fifty-fifty one that is as minor equally a fuel filter replacement. Information technology's e'er best if you lot have a mechanic that y'all consider yours, one that is reliable and trustworthy who you know volition provide quality service at a good price. If you don't have a mechanic similar that right now, then your best bet is to rely on some guidance from friends and family unit who have experience.

Another good manner to figure out if a mechanic is going to be trustworthy and also reliable is to check out online reviews. Both Google and Yelp are extremely helpful in letting you lot bank check out the reviews posted past other customers to give you an thought of the kind of service you lot tin expect with whatsoever given mechanic. It's never a bad thought to consult with these to help y'all decide to whom yous should give your concern.

If y'all're in the market to just supervene upon the fuel filter on your own, yous could always head to AutoZone and see what it costs to buy the filter brand new . New fuel filters are surprisingly inexpensive, and you can find them for every bit footling as $four while others can get up to around $40. Information technology's important to brand sure that y'all go a fuel filter that actually fits in your auto, even so. You can check with your possessor's manual to find out exactly what kind of filter you should be getting earlier you put any coin in it.

What is a Fuel Filter?

Every time you make full upwardly with gas at the pump, there's a potential for contaminants to get into your fuel tank. The fuel filter is part of the fuel system that takes the gasoline from your tank and sends information technology to the engine of your car where it will exist ignited in the combustion chamber to provide power to the vehicle. The filter is there to catch whatever small bits of dirt, droppings, or whatsoever else might have gotten into the fuel and so that it can't contaminate the engine and cause issues with the combustion process.

Fuel filters work the same equally any other filter in your vehicle like the air filter or the oil filter. There is like a fine mesh picture show inside of information technology that the fuel is filtered through and even the smallest impurities volition exist caught. As y'all can imagine, if the filter ends up getting clogged with also much debris and mess, it's going to affect the overall performance. Likewise, if it breaks downwards, so it won't be able to properly filter out the debris which in term can get into the engine of your vehicle.

At that place are a couple of places in your car where the fuel filter could be located. It could exist inside the fuel tank itself right where the fuel exits the tag into the fuel line. It could as well be somewhere further down the fuel line closer to the engine. Typically, this will be accessed from nether the automobile. Your best bet if you're looking for it and aren't certain where to observe it is to check your owner's manual to notice out for certain.

Symptoms of a Bad Fuel Filter

In that location are some definite signs that yous should look out for if your fuel filter has started to fail. As with any problems in your vehicle, there could be other causes for some of these problems. That said, your fuel filter is a good place to start looking if you notice whatever of this happening.

Engine Stalling: When your fuel filter is chock-full with debris or otherwise malfunctioning, the right amount of fuel is not going to exist getting through to the fuel injector and into your engine. When you're not called-for the right amount of fuel, so your car is simply not able to part properly. That's going to lead to things like engine stalls.

Engine Misfires : If your fuel filter is clogged enough then y'all'll notice that every bit you put greater stress on your engine, it will start to misfire . When you are accelerating to a high-speed or heading upwards a steep incline, the demands on your fuel volition exist greater. With a clog in the filter, you won't exist able to become the precise mix needed for combustion to occur and you'll be getting misfires. If this happens over a prolonged amount of time you can crusade some serious damage to your engine.

Lack of Engine Power: One of the easiest means to pinpoint the problem with an issue in your fuel filter is when your engine isn't able to keep upwardly with the demands you're putting on information technology. This occurs most often when y'all're trying to go over a hill or some other kind of inclined. As you press down on the accelerator, you'll notice that the engine isn't responding the way it should and y'all might actually end up getting reduced power over what you had been experiencing instead of an increase. This is because you're not able to increment the amount of fuel being fed into the combustion bedchamber. The engine will exist working as difficult every bit normal, only it won't take the matching fuel to meet the demand, and that leads to the lack of ability overall.

Car Won't Start: In the cases of a severely fuel filter chock-full, even when you take a total tank of gas you may not be able to go the engine to start. This means y'all accept a completely clogged filter however and no fuel is getting through. This would be exceedingly rare, and you would have noticed some of these other problems happening earlier. Yous should take been experiencing things like misfires and stalls prior to this happening. The but way that this would happen out of the blue and your fuel filter would be the cause without there being other symptoms would exist if some excessive contaminant had been added to your fuel tank.

Cheque Engine Calorie-free : The check engine light is a very vague alert for nearly drivers. It can mean any number of bug has occurred, so it doesn't really narrow the field down to your fuel filter. Nonetheless, if your fuel filter has failed it may trigger this light going off due to a lack of fuel pressure level. Many cars have a force per unit area sensor to check the pressure level of the fuel line, and a chock-full filter will trip that sensor and and then caused this light to go off.

Bad Fuel Pump : If your fuel pump is not performance properly the fuel filter could be the culprit. When the filter is too badly clogged then the fuel pump will exist working overtime to try to draw more fuel. Consider information technology like when you're vacuuming in your firm and something blocks the end of the hose. It could finish up burning out to the whole unit of measurement because information technology'southward unable to do its job properly with a clog in the line.

Can I Replace My Ain Fuel Filter?

A fuel filter will typically last at least thirty,000 miles. That used to be the old rule of thumb for irresolute them in fact, but these days fuel is a lot cleaner than it used to be and a fuel filter will not be under as much stress from routine driving. Why old filters were recommended to be inverse every 30,000 miles, some of them can final equally much as 60,000 miles or more than now especially if you lot're using high quality fuel in your car.

Replacing the filter is a fairly uncomplicated task relative to another car repairs. If y'all're confident doing things like replacing the oil filter in your car, changing tires, and and so on, you may exist able to handle changing the fuel filter on your vehicle as well. You need to become your machine out on jacks to pull this off, and then if you're not confident doing that, then it may be best to get a mechanic to practice this for you.

As with any repair jobs, if you lot've never washed it before, your best bet is to look up some guides online that tin walk yous through information technology. There are a number of websites that can give yous a stride-past-footstep process for replacing the fuel filter in your car.

Thanks to the popularity of YouTube, there are too a wide array of very high quality videos made by skilled, licensed mechanics who tin also guide you through the process of changing your fuel filter. These are great because yous get to watch and real-fourth dimension how information technology works which tin can make it easier then repeating written instructions for some people. And of course, you can ever go dorsum and watch parts again if you aren't sure about how something is done.

Equally we mentioned, a new fuel filter tin can be every bit little as $4. When it's something that cheap, it's definitely in your interests to acquire how to make the repair yourself if you want. Yous can salvage yourself a significant sum of money if you're able to handle this chore on your own, rather than taking the time and money to go a mechanic to do information technology for you lot.

I matter to be aware of is that it can really be problematic to effort to alter your filter if it hasn't been inverse in a very long fourth dimension. If it'south been over 100,000 miles since information technology was done information technology could exist and so called that equally you endeavor to remove information technology, you lot may cease upwardly dumping contaminants into the fuel line. That could be worse in the long run, so in this case it might as well be in your best interest to let a mechanic become the job done.

The Bottom Line

When your fuel filter is not working properly the problems that it tin cause for your engine are definitely things yous want to be on the lookout for. If you lot are suffering from things like misfires and stalls, that ways that yous're putting a lot of extra stress on your engine as information technology'due south trying to properly burn fuel but coming up short.

In fourth dimension information technology could cause some serious damage to the pistons in the valves in your engine. for the cost of a $4 fuel filter you could end up saving ourselves several thou dollars worth of damage to your engine. It's non hard to effigy out the math on this 1 and see that replacing your fuel filter is something you really desire to do as before long as you realize it's a problem.

It'due south a cheap fix even if you go to a mechanic to get it done, and if yous do it yourself it'southward extremely cost effective too. There's no reason not to get information technology washed every bit soon equally you lot realize in that location's a problem.