The Most Unnecessarily Miserable Job...

[Jeff Higgins]

In the history of auto mechanics. The lowly fuel filter, of all things, on my '93 FJ80. A maintenance item, and what turned out to be all of a four hour job, involving the removal of the left front wheel and some of the rubber inner fender shrouding to begin operations.

Absolutely no access to this thing. I knew of its reputation, so went to YouTube for some tutorials and whatever "cheats" the community has figured out over the years. Still, even with that, four hours of trying to get my big old paws and forearms (just one at a time) into the most frustrating tangle of other hoses, wiring, brackets, and what not. Everything imaginable that could conspire to thwart one's efforts. For a fuel filter, fer chrisakes.

There should be nothing but room under that hood. Straight six under a big ol' truck hood. Why in the name of all that is holy did they hide it down on the side of the motor, under the intake manifold, behind the steering column, above the starter, and on and on?

Sorry, just had to snivel and bytch a little. This takes me like fifteen minutes on my 911...

[fastfredracing]

Is that the typical Toyota filter that has a threaded connection on the bottom side ? I always hated those. Add 10-15 years of pa rust, and you get a real joy of a job

[rcooled]

Talkin' about miserable jobs...

[billybek]

Originally Posted by rcooled

Talkin' about miserable jobs...

Caption this photo?

Cover me. I'm going in....

The bumper smile on the SC. Something that should be so simple....

[Jeff Higgins]

Banjo fittings on both ends, the supply side a flexible rubber hose and a hard line to the injectors side. It's pretty cool in that the filter has ears to hold the lines in proper orientation so they don't spin and kink when you loosen the banjo bolts through the fittings. Those actually broke loose with no trouble.

Here is a good shot of the filter, showing how it mounts to the bottom of the intake manifold:



Here it is in its native habitat, looking up from underneath the truck:

[fastfredracing]

Oh, yeah, just like on older toyota tacomas, or pickups. Yes , miserable

[Jeff Higgins]

I think I'll do it like this next time:

[javadog]

That’s absolutely ridiculous.

It reminds me of when I was changing the approximate 200-something coolant hoses on my kid’s 4runner. Jack up the left front corner, remove the left front wheel and tire, remove the inner paneling, try to get your hands and the tool in a small spot that you can only see if your hands aren’t there...

[scottmandue]

Has anyone tried changing the coolant hose(s) on a NA Miata?

[BK911]

Why'd you change the filter?
Issue or preventative maintenance?
I have a 94 about to hit 200k.
Probably need to start by thinking about this?

[VincentVega]

Originally Posted by fastfredracing

Oh, yeah, just like on older toyota tacomas, or pickups. Yes , miserable

Yep, btdt. One job i overprice because I don't want to do it.

[CurtEgerer]

Jeff, you haven't worked on an Audi have you?

[petrolhead611]

Changing a heater hose on my Scimitar GT V6 took four and a half hours decades ago when I was young and agile. It involved removing a front wheel ,shining a torch held in teeth( no headtorches then) through a slot in the inner wing to facilitate inserting a screwdriver to undo a hose clip on the water pump then laying atop the air cleaner to reach under the scuttle to undo the clip at the heater end, the reverse repeat the process. I suffered two dents in my chest from the domed nuts on the top of the air cleaner. This was a fairly expensive limited production car so I don't think the manufacturer thought about home mechanics travails.

[chapo]

Heater core on a 99 Lexus gs300. Two days. Seats, dash, steering column, center console, and miscellaneous bs in the engine compartment. A Lexus service guy told me they used to cut a hole in the firewall at the dealer to change them.

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally Posted by BK911

Why'd you change the filter?
Issue or preventative maintenance?
I have a 94 about to hit 200k.
Probably need to start by thinking about this?

I have been fighting an intermittent stumble during warmup. I think I might have gotten some water in the gas or something. So, I added Seafoam for several tanks of gas to dry it out, maybe clean the injectors a bit, and that sort of thing. I was a bit worried that whatever action it may have had in the tank would send some crud forward, so I thought I would replace the fuel filter as a precaution. This is not included in the maintenance schedule (which I think is kind of unusual), so unless you are having some sort of issues, I don't think I would worry about it.

[Yorkie]

Originally Posted by chapo

Heater core on a 99 Lexus gs300. Two days. Seats, dash, steering column, center console, and miscellaneous bs in the engine compartment. A Lexus service guy told me they used to cut a hole in the firewall at the dealer to change them.

I cut a hole in the transmission tunnel of my ‘61 XKE to assist with changing out the starter. I’d probably be murdered by the riviera counters for such a travesty these days

[Evans, Marv]

Any chance of replacing/extending the hard line & hose so you can mount it on the chassis below??

[slow&rusty]

I think we've all bee there a time or two in the past with vehicles we own or owned.

I was just thinking a few days ago how simple it is to work on my 1986 BMW 635 then the damn brake accumulator went out so I jinxed myself, it was a bear to remove and reinstall.

It has three large diameter hydraulic hard lines that thread into it, god forbid you round off one of those lines and ruin the end or you forget to install the rubber seal on the new accumulator. Access is new impossible even with the tiniest hands much less my giant paws.

You have to fight with wiring, the firewall, the strut tower and not damage a think along the way....no fun!

[quicksix]

It's in approximately the same position on a 22re pickup, the "fix" is to mount it on the inner fender.
I may consider it when I have to do it on my '88.

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally Posted by quicksix

It's in approximately the same position on a 22re pickup, the "fix" is to mount it on the inner fender.
I may consider it when I have to do it on my '88.

Yeah, I think that is "the fix" on these as well. The only trouble spot for this would be the hard line going to the injector side. The supply line is rubber, and would easily reach a relocated filter.

I guess one has to do this sort of thing on any specific application before we get sufficiently motivated to pursue alternatives. We are all inherently optimistic - how bad can it be? Other people do it...

So, yeah, this time I was ill prepared to modify anything. All I had on hand was the new filter. Next time, though... I'm going to do a bit of research and see what other guys have come up with. The hard line will have to be replaced, and God only knows where it terminates on the injector end. I can't see where, but I didn't look all that hard. Maybe fab up an adapter line from the existing hard line to wherever the filter winds up. I dunno... maybe I won't even own it long enough to care again. We'll see.