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This is why you should change your accord diesel fuel filter

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Location
Enfield
Car
8th Gen IDTEC Saloon
So the 7th gen has covered about 20,000 miles since the last FF change. I noticed a slight drop in performance which prompted me to change it. Changed it all easy enough a few days ago and the car now feels much better.

So lets take a look at what is inside the old filter then:

The filter still had some fuel in there, so I drained it all out into a container. You can clearly see some rubbish floating about in there so the filter is doing its job.




few pics of the filter:







Filter being secured:


Top section cut off:


Extracting the element: Clearly very dirty and a change was definitely needed.






You can see the gum and rubbish on one of the tissues there. This was from wiping one of the fins of the filter.

So anyone reading this thread considering changing the FF, dont think, just get it done for peace of mind. I will be changing it again in 20,000.
 
Impressive display! Where do you normally buy fuel?

I wish I'd bothered to cut mine open... I changed it earlier this year after 4 years of ownership and 60K miles. It must have been a filthy mess inside.
 
Saj, great thread mate and this should really serve as a strong message to those doubting the importance of this crucial part.

I thought your sis had a facelift car however?
 
Yea, its a 2004. If this thread gets 1 owner to change the filter, it would be worth it.
 
Well done Saj. Hopefully the photographic evidence will persuade people that the car manufacturers really do mean it when they say that the filter needs to be changed as a service item. (even if they do put it in a stupid place!)

Alan
 
Good write up Saj it just proves how important it is to regularly service are cars.
 
And if the carp that came out of that filter from using only v-power (supposedly a superior fuel, cleaner, etc etc) what does it mean for the rest of us that just buy normal Shell (& admittedly occasional supermarket fuel)!

I'd hate to see what mine looks like!
 
AcesHigh said:
And if the carp that came out of that filter from using only v-power (supposedly a superior fuel, cleaner, etc etc) what does it mean for the rest of us that just buy normal Shell (& admittedly occasional supermarket fuel)!

I'd hate to see what mine looks like!
Click to expand...

I'd be pretty worried if a carp came out of my fuel filter!! ;)
 
I'll take my fishing rod to that lol
 
wow, only 20k miles and it was that rank already! :wacko:
 
Call me stupid, but i thought the fuel filter got changed every 12,500 miles, minimum ??? Please educate me.
 
Declanswan said:
Call me stupid, but i thought the fuel filter got changed every 12,500 miles, minimum ??? Please educate me.
Click to expand...
My service schedule says every 25,000 miles. At the intermediate services it should be drained. So you do have to do something to it every 12,500 miles!
 
^to be honest, for the sake of £30, I think vhanging it every 12,500 miles is very good practice. Just think about it, if a piece of debris manages to get through a clogged filter, the next thing it would hit is the injector, and these are not cheap things to repair or replace. I would really urge people to change their filters as often as possible. I just changed the FF on my Merc and after cutting the chamber open with a hacksaw, the element is more or less the same as the pics above. I will be changing them more often and I recommend anyone who wants to take care of their car to do the same.
 
Hi Saj - I was only quoting the Honda recommendations!

In any case, the failure mode on a neglected filter is going to be excessive restriction, rather than allowing the throughput of debris. So not catastrophic, more that the engine will fail to receive sufficient fuel flow and will cause the annoying conditions widely mentioned in other threads on this site.

I know it's only 30 odd quid for a new one, but it is a messy and fiddly job. And I reckon the more you fiddle with a working car the more chance you have of causing secondary problems. But then I am a particularly clumsy mechanic!

I remain surprised at how much clag you found in your filter, especially as you do use a premium fuel.
 
Yea, I was very surprised too at the amount of rubbish floating in the fuel when I poured the remains out from the canister. I do wonder though, the filter will filter down to a particular particle size so what if some rubbish actually does get through, maybe not the larger sized particles but the smaller stuff????.
 
It seems reasonable to ***ume that some unwanted bits are going to get through, as no filtration can be 100% perfect. This may potentially then cause wear in the fuel pump and - as you mentioned - the injectors. However, Honda will have carefully specified the filter requirements to ensure the flow and filtration properties should remain adequate in normal use. Fingers crossed!
 
Obviously the fliter cannot remove everything but the manufacturers of the pump and injectors will have specified the maximum partlicle size these components can tolerate without damage. The car manufacturer will then have specified a filter which is capable of achieving this. One thing which has not been mentioned in this thread is the fliter ***embly's equally important role in removing water, If water gets into the pump internals it can quickly cause sufficient rusting to wreck the pump - you'd be surprised how little it rust is needed.

I'm not particularly surprised at the amount of rubbish. in the fliter. The fuel wasn't like that when it was produced, but consider what happened to it subsequently. First it went into a storage tank at the refinery, then it was loaded into a tanker and transferred to a storage depot where it sat for a while. After that it was loaded into another tanker and transfered to the filling staion tanks. You should see the precautions that have to be taken when it's not diesel you're talking about but Jet A1 for aircraft. Even then various sorts of rubbish ends up in the aircraft fuel tanks.

Alan
 
Hmm, once again I seem to be the weird one here....

through general apathy mines been on for well over 70K now with no degradation or running issues so either my local garages have nice clean tanks or it really isn't as likely to cause issues as some people think.

Maybe I'm just lucky....
 
Obviously there is quite a bit of surplus capability built in by the manufacturer, probably as set in the original Honda requirements - otherwise it would obviously cause problems very early on. I guess this is what's missing in cheaper (non-OEM) filters that sometimes people fit and then have a problem ...and there are plenty of reports from those who have had problems after using non-OEM filters.

Mine also didn't get replaced until I had covered over 60K miles 4 years after buying it - and then I honestly didn't notice any difference after changing it. But it was the genuine Bosch filter both before and after I changed it. I buy fuel from wherever cheapest, including supermarkets.

Maybe I'm lucky too?
 
i didnt not know that the fuel filter had to be changed every 12k, i change mine every year with the oil and thats about 8k .... :unsure:
 
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