stevewaclo

Apologies in advance, but so many search hits on fuel filter location, thought I'd ask.

Just rolled out from under after tracing the fuel lines from the tank to where they disappear into the engine bay and can't find anything that looks like the stubby, white plastic, "short tomato paste" can with two fittings I bought at the parts store. Under the hood, the only area I can't see is below the intake manifold, but before I go there would appreciate assurances that's where the filter lives. My FSM sez against the chassis, near the tank, but nada.

BTW, reason I want to do a swap is I have not replaced the filter in the 8 (!) years I've owned my truck and I'm getting a big, random miss that plugs, wires, cap and rotor did not cure.

Jump in anywhere!

Terrys87

iTrader: (1)

It is located on passenger side between the 2 front bed support rails. I just painted my frame but this is it.

stevewaclo

Thanks for making time to send a pic!

Back under the truck. Can't imagine how I'm not seeing it.

RickyZ

I feel your pain. Looked long and hard for it in my 86 and never did see it till I had the bed off to paint the truck. Dunno how to get to it decently with the bed on. Or maybe it's not even there if the po did like on my 90 3.0, just take it clear out and use a short piece of fuel line! Wonder why the injectors clogged...

stevewaclo

10-4 RickyZ

Stumbled across a fascinating article on FI fuel filters in Toyota's that said the design is truly "lifetime" and the engineers did not want it to be touched. They even put in in a hard to reach place and painted it black (can someone confirm?). At one point there was going to be a label that said, "not serviceable", or words to that effect. More danger of system contamination due to fussing with it. A responder to the post called BS on the lifetime part, but apparently FSM's show it in a diagram and say not a word about it in the text. Just confirmed that by looking at my 4# Truck and 4Runner FSM. The filter internal design is very sophisticated and intended for hundreds of thousands of miles. Wish I had copied a link. Fascinating stuff.

Per that article, mess with your FI filter at your own peril. Carb filters, another story.

RickyZ

That's quite interesting! Yeah mine was black and it was a genuine Toyota filter. Dunno how a filter, especially one that small, could effectively filter out the junk for a Toyota's lifetime tho. If I had known that, I would have opened it up out of curiosity... So know are the replacements from Napa, autozone, etc lifetime as well or do they need replaced regularly?

stevewaclo

Spent a few moments and rediscovered the article about "lifetime" FI filters:

http://www.rav4world.com/forums/83-4...lter-myth.html

RickyZ

Thanks for posting the link, interesting story. Funny how Toyota's engineers couldn't hide that filter :-) However that wouldn't apply to the filters on our carb'd engines as it was designed for efi systems. (at least if I got the article right) so maybe it would be a good idea to replace the filter occasionally. But then again, as well as they concealed it on the 22r maybe it is a lifetime filter, who knows?

vital22re

iTrader: (2)

filters get clogged and dirty. If you ask anyone who works in a shop, they will tell you that they get clogged and fail. Toyota and Honda have claims of lifetime filters. Yet they need replacement time to time.

Terrys87

iTrader: (1)

No problem. Some dont know of it but there is another filter in the tank that gets can get clogged with a hard coating of build up. Guess you could call it a varnish or something like that. Its at the end of the pickup tube. Around $15 from Toyota.

Dirty

stevewaclo

Thanks for the tip on the "in-tank" sock filter. Believe I'm going to need to look at that too.

Found my filter (thanks Terrys87!). Did not expect to find it so far back from the front of the tank.

Installed the new one, went for a drive and at first everything seemed back to normal, but after about 1/2 mile, it bucked again. Lugged the engine way down in 4th and floored it (to stress the ignition) and it didn't miss. Running up through the gears, and it does, but nowhere near as bad as before.

Cut open the old filter when I got home and it had a half-thimble full of dirt inside, so clearly part of the problem. 10 years and 100k on that filter . My bad.

Again, thanks to all.