Toyota Camry Fuel Filter: Change It or Not?

edward22

The Magazine "Motor Service" each year has an
article on fuel filters. They say change them,
cause "most GM filters" are "close to plugging up",
and they also say the slow clogging of fuel
filters puts a load on the fuel pump. They say the
"never change" recommendations of some
manufacturers are improper.
My Camry manual has no recommended fuel filter
change frequency.
My Toyota dealer refused to change the filter at
60,000 miles ( I was ready to pay). One established
Toyota website says never change them.
Whats your experience?
- do you have a Toyota, over 90k miles with the
original fuel filter? Tell me about it.
Also have you personally changed a Camry 4 cyl
filter? How hard? - Motor Service last year said it
was easy to screw it up and damage the pipe to the
tank costing big bucks. A local repair shop told
me the same thing - they say the end of the fuel
line and the fitting on the filter itself are
strange (this may be why the dealer won't change it
- but you would think Toyota would have fixed that
long ago.
Opinions?

loyola

I have a 92 Camry V6 with 129K miles. I remember asking the dealer at around 70k (when they were doing my timing belt ) and said that the fuel filter doesn't need replacement I don't know if they would refuse to do it.
Last month, I referred to my Haynes manual. It recommends replacing every 30,000 miles or 24 months. Since it hasn't been replaced, I wonder if I could do it myself...(maybe I could use my Navy experience working on ship's engines for 9 years ) So I got the filter from Toyota (around $25 )
Off came the air filter housing, the outlet ( top part)of the filter is easy to remove but the inlet ( bottom )part is so tight with minimal space to work on. I gave it a few tries, but due to time contraints, and fear of rounding out the nut or breaking the line ( we tend to do that when getting frustrated and make matters worse)I had to stop. I still have the filter and planning to retry next weekend. I post the results.

p.s. If you are planning to do it, you'll need a flare nut wrench for that nasty bottom nut.

edward22

I think the Haynes manual is too generic to be followed.
Yes, access to the bottom is tight, but the magazine last year talked about some unusual construction of the fuel supply line that made it prone to small leaks after filter replacement. The repair shop that worked on imports (well established) said they had messed up one or two and the replacement line to the tank was very expensive (tho you would think it could be field repaired even tho it is a pressurized line when in use). Some people have said use only Toyota filters , which would make sense as if there is a problem seems the factory would have tried to address it in the filter design.
I have changed lots of other brand FI filters. If you do yours let me know how it goes. Looks like you got 129K w/o a filter change though!!!!

pat455

I saw your post in our active Camry Problems topic (#597) asking folks there to come help you out here.

Actually, it would have been a much better idea for you to have posted your question in that topic.

Town Hall is not like the usual internet question and answer boards. Here, we have broad topics of discussion that encompass lots of related thoughts, ideas, issues, suggestions. By keeping broad discussions in fewer places, it is easier for our members to find lots of information in one place.

Additionally, we have software limitations as to how many topics can exist - active and archived - in a conference. So the very specifically named, few-post topics are likely candidates for deletion at some point, while the more broadly named and more active topics will be archived, thus ensuring the information contained will be available to our members for a long time to come.

I hope this helps you understand why posting in an existing relevant topic is a much better idea than creating a whole new very narrowly defined one.

Good luck with your issue.

Pat
Community Leader/Maintenance & Repair Conference