Fuel Filters for Mechanical Dummies

Carburetor vs Fuel Injectors

It's been a while since our staffers visited HubPages.com, perhaps because they've been having so much fun patrolling all those niche sites Leaf Group has been stuffing with old eHow content. Be that as it may, there's still plenty of dumbassery over at the hub, it's just that the site's organization makes it harder to drill down to it. Whatever the case, we do occasionally feature a hubbie as DotD, and today's one of those days. Meet returning awardee Joanna Millar (msmillar) and what we suspect to be another entry from her "my hubby did this, so I'll write about it" file: "Replace a Fuel Filter - Common." Don't ask us what that whole "- Common" business is supposed to mean...

Millar opens with a paragraph that had us confused:

"If you look at the carburetor in your vehicle it works very much like our heart works. Our heart pumps blood and oxygen through a network of ventricles and veins to make our body run. The carburetor meters fuel and oxygen through a network of venturi, jets and hoses to 'nourish' the engine so it can run."

That left us with some thoughts: 1) the heart pumps blood through arteries, not veins; 2) we've never seen a carb with a hose (though we suppose it's possible), and 3) we haven't had a vehicle with a carburetor since the early '90s: everything is fuel-injected these days. Joanna then goes on to announce that

"A good rule of thumb for replacing the fuel filter is every 30,000 miles or once a year. If you rarely drive your car then, of course, less often would be appropriate for you."

A) We don't follow freelancers' rules of thumb here at the Antisocial Network, we follow scheduled maintenance. B) Her "less often" advice is utter bull, since people who rarely drive are more likely to have condensation in the tank that necessitates changing the filter.
Millar then gets to the meat of the matter, explaining that fuel filters are found in one (or both) of two places: inline and in the carburetor (no word about in the fuel-injection manifold or whatever). She misses an important one: many vehicles have a lifetime fuel filter integrated into the fuel pump, which is inside the gas tank. Next, she explains how to change a filter. For inline filters, her instructions are:

1. Locate the filter along the fuel line.
2. Place a catch-all container below the filter to catch any gas that may spill.
3. Remove the clamp holding the filter in place.
4. Using pliers pinch the hose clamps to release the hose on each side...

Apparently hubby works on classic cars, because modern vehicles have pressurized fuel systems, and the first step in replacing a filter should be to depressurize the system – otherwise fuel will spray all over the place!

So there you have it: instructions that offer incorrect advice; talk about obsolete technology; fail to address a common location for the filter – if there even is one; and, worst of all, omit critical safety information. This is exactly why we so often hand out the Dumbass of the Day award to people who haven't done the task but write about it anyway.

At least this time Millar didn't warn that you might break a nail...

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DD - FUEL