More Maintenance

Yesterday I changed my fuel filters. Yes, two of them. If you own one of these cars, this is no surprise to you, but for me, this is a little different. One looks like an oil filter, the other is a typical plastic inline fuel filter. Apparently, the inline filter was really clogged. It was also installed backwards. Don't know who put it in, but they didn't a good job of it. It uses about 8" of fuel line to connect it to the primer pump, and that seemed to be in bad shape, so I bought a foot of high pressure fuel hose to replace it. Inspection of the hose after it was off


I can really see a difference in engine performance now. Hopefully I will get a good increase in fuel economy since I don't have to stomp on it to accelerate anymore. However, I tend to have a lead foot, so I need to try and be conservative with the throttle. Stupid diesel is over $3 a gallon right now.

Today I took a nice long ride down the interstate (I-20 towards Atlanta) and noticed a much smoother ride with no problem at all getting up to cruising speed (you know "70"). The only downside to this new found power is that the injection return lines now pour fuel out beside the injectors. Before, they only slowly leached fuel out, but the increase in fuel has them working full time now. Time to order a replacement set.

This is a really easy repair item, and only took me about 30 minutes including cleanup time.