awiner

I replaced my fuel filter today. It was the original fuel filter that came installed from the factory. Now that i am approaching 130,000 miles I figured I might as well replace it as it is a inexpensive item. I really should have replaced it earlier.

Removal and replacement was simple. 20 Minutes from start to finish. If you do this, take the gas cap off first to depressurize the fuel system and be ready to swap the new filter in once hoses are removed to reduce the fuel loss/spilling). It may help to use some clamps to help close off the hose ends when removing, but I did not do this. I just made sure I could do a filter swap quickly.

I did not need to jack the car up, there was enough room even though my car is lowered a bit to accomplish this task with the tires on the ground.

Tools/Items needed:

10mm hex socket (to remove plastic compartment just forward of driver side rear tire)
Phillips screw driver (to loosen fuel filter clamp)
Small standard screw driver (to remove OE clamps)
Pliers to reinstall fuel line clamps (Unless you buy new standard clamps with a hex/screw driver head)
New fuel filter (part A002-477-27-01)


I have to admit, the low speed "slight idle 'stumble" I have become accustomed to disappeared once the new fuel filter was in place. Obviously there must have been an obstruction in the fuel filter that caused the stutter at low idle. I was curious as to what was obstructing fuel delivery in the filter so I cut it open.

I was shocked to find that the filter element inside the thick aluminum can was made out of a CARDBOARD type material !

126,000 miles and 10.5 years of fuel really made this cardboard material tough. I wonder if this was causing an obstruction of fuel through the filter.

With a new Bosch fuel filter priced at ~$20.00, my recommendation is change it every 4 years or 50,000 miles.

Crissus

Thanks alot! Will do this also ASAP.

alx

I would say your cure is a placebo.

A dirty filter will manifest itself far more at higher rpms than at idle. If the low rpms were the only thing that has improved - a dirty fuel filter was not your culprit. Just a random thought...

But yes, they do get neglected/ forgotten and do accumulate junk inside. I have seen a few that were as you found out- pretty rough.

shardul

iTrader: (1)

All filter elements are made out of a cardboard type material. Nothing shocking about it.

grane

I'm getting my car back at 50k miles with the FF change so we'll see if it runs more smoothly.

Thank you for the DIY!

driveability

Having replaced hundreds of FF wile working as a tune up and driveability tech I found almost any drive-ability issue can be caused by a restricted FF. I completely agree most often it will show up when more volume is needed but can cause issues at lower volume areas as well. I know this may sound strange but I always connect a clean hose to the end of the FF and blow through them. Normally theres not much restriction but when there is often down the road is a pump failure. Not saying for sure it will happen, I'm just another old tech thinking outloud.

Crissus

Hi, short Question. The MB Part Nr for the fuel Filter is: "0024772701".
I want to buy it Aftermarket from Mahle oder MANN Filter, like i always do, since they are the OEs and do the best filters overall.
But my Program shows me two different filters for that PartNumber.

One is with a single 8mm inlet and 8mm outlet, but also they show another one with 2 inlets as well as two outlets. Also these last mentioned filters do cost 2.5 times as much as the ones with only one inlet and outlet.

Which one is the right one?

awiner

For the W215, single inlet on each side.

Crissus

Thanks alot! :-)
Another question while we on it... Does the C215 also have that dreaded fuelsender failure problem, like our E55K brothers have?

alx

No, but it does have the fuel canister problem which will make the gas station pump shut off at half tank or less when refueling.

amgcl55

My car has 60k miles and I too had a slight off idle stumble-It also is gone,but i also did change air filters(not very dirty) and wiped out throttle bore
thanks

RoCL

Does the fuel canister problem causes any other issues? Assuming you can live with the pump shut off you mentioned, any reason to replace?

Thanks!

Exotic-metal55

You should change the fuel filters every 15 K miles or so, no matter what the book says. the thing I hated about the filter was the 5MM inlet and outlet! Can not make any power through that small of a hole. All my stock lines and pumps are gone now and up-sized to 8an lines, pumps and filters.

Crissus

I replaced mine today aswell. I put the ABC suspension to level "2" (max. raise) and that is actually enough to do the job.
Only as i wasn't seeing the stock hose clamp from the outlet of the filter, i used a car jack to get fully under the car which made it alot easier obviously.
I used a "hose close pliers" to shut of the line from the pump to the filter and do the swap.
I used high quality "multi-use" clamps with 7mm hex head as a replacement.

Before i put the new filter in, i blowed with my mouth through the old and the new one for a comparison and the difference is like night and day. I dont know how old the filter was that was in the car though.

Results:
Despite i replaced air filters and spark plugs two weekends ago (Spark plug change PITA! was 9 Hours work!!!), i still had slight stumble at idle.

My slight stumble at idle and sometimes even a slight visible RPM variation at idle, every minute or so, is now fully gone after the fuel filter replacement. Idle feels a lot more smooth - i can highly recommend to do this every 2 years or so.

awiner

9 Hours for a plug chage? What did you find was the issue? I had mine old ones out and new ones installed in less than an hour and a half.

Crissus

Well, they were the first ones in and my car has now over 150.000km (~94.000miles), they were so hard to get out.
I used a veeeery long wrench (half body length) and a flexible cardan joint. I had to push with my whole body weight EVERY TURN against the wrench with my right arm to make a turn. At the same with my left arm i turned the wrench to have it allinged properly because of the flexible cardan joint.

At every turn there was such a loud whine from the heads/plugs thread, like if you havent removed your winter wheels for years. With every turn i prayed that the plug wont break apart so that i wont have to remove the cylinder heads.
I had to use that much force up until the last thread pitch on every single plug!!!

After 3 plugs i was already so much out of breath and had pain in my shoulder and arms like doing 3 headgasket changes on a V8 after each other. And as i was done to replace them, i noticed that two plug boots wont snap-in properly onto the plugs. I looked into them and i saw that two copper-connectors of the old plugs broke apart as i was pulling the boots and the copper connectors stuck in the plug boots. Imagine that!
So i ordered two new plug boots which i installed the day after.

I was aware of that before, that a plug change on the M113 engines can be a nightmare (read tons of nightmare stories on the internet) and yes it was - even though thank god none broke apart that something was stuck in the cylinder heads...

capn_shawn

Off topic, but I recently did my plugs and found them to be VERY difficult to remove.

Just as Crissus states, over half of them never loosened from the first turn to the last and were a major amount of wrenching to get the whole lot removed. My plugs were original with 77K miles on them. I never experenced this with Japanese aluminum heads.

awiner

Interesting guys. I used a air ratchet to remove the plugs. that must be why I didn't experience or realize the issues you explained and the job went quick and smooth.

Upon reinstall I made sure to use a copious amount of anti seize on the threads as well.

Changed my wires at the same time so I did not have any issues there either. Luck sometimes is great!

stamper197

Dear God man I hope you are never doing work under the car without a block under the body as I would not trust that suspension system with my life. An internal leak on either ABC Valve or strut and your a dead man and they like to depressurize after they key goes off.

ctravis595