Despite the efforts of the car service industry to persuade us otherwise, I shall continue to regard filters as lifetime components which, with the exception of oil filters, merely require occasional cleaning or, in the case of modern fuel filters, replacement in the rare event of significant debris blockage. (My TR7 filter is easily accesible for cleaing - once every 20yrs or so ;-)

Our 21yr old rusty Focus went to the scrap yard with air and pollen filters at least 18yrs old (our period of ownership - the pollen filter was probably original).

Really? I've had to change fuel filters because of problems before now. Pollen filters seem to get horribly filthy after only a year and air filters too but less so. I've tried the cheapskate approach of vacuuming them out but it just doesn't do the job.

Exactly! Totally agree, John has a rather strange approach to servicing ( or should that be non servicing?).

Ah cheapskate approach. Now you are talking my language.

I backflushed my fuel filter using a hypodermic syringe and 75% alcohol. Got a lot of rust out.

Letting the cheapskate side down rather I fitted a new one, but I kept the old one for possible fitting in series.

Before I got around to that I scavenged a filter holder from a very dead Yanmar knock-off diesel irrigation pump which had been regularly under the river every typhoon season for at least a decade. This has replacable elements, which I prefer. Still had diesel in it.

I should now be set to drive to Mauritania, fuel filtration-wise.

Edited by edlithgow on 04/07/2022 at 02:45

Despite the efforts of the car service industry to persuade us otherwise, I shall continue to regard filters as lifetime components..........our 21yr old rusty Focus went to the scrap yard with air and pollen filters at least 18yrs old (our period of ownership - the pollen filter was probably original).

Really? ..... Pollen filters seem to get horribly filthy after only a year and air filters too but less so. I've tried the cheapskate approach of vacuuming them out but it just doesn't do the job.

Of course it doesn't. You need a stiff small paint brush to get into the pleats. Then backwash them, like a Dyson filter.

Despite the efforts of the car service industry to persuade us otherwise, I shall continue to regard filters as lifetime components which, with the exception of oil filters, merely require occasional cleaning or, in the case of modern fuel filters, replacement in the rare event of significant debris blockage. (My TR7 filter is easily accesible for cleaing - once every 20yrs or so ;-)

Our 21yr old rusty Focus went to the scrap yard with air and pollen filters at least 18yrs old (our period of ownership - the pollen filter was probably original).

Really? I've had to change fuel filters because of problems before now. Pollen filters seem to get horribly filthy after only a year and air filters too but less so. I've tried the cheapskate approach of vacuuming them out but it just doesn't do the job.

There's an Oak Ridge research paper showing that fuel economy and performance is pretty insensitive to air filter clogging.

www.researchgate.net/publication/237339045_Effect_...y

This suggests (to me) that air filtration could usefully be supplemented, and, since I needed a lower air pressure in the air filter housing anyway to get it to suck in decoking water via an IV line, I wrapped the filter in paper towel,

Seemed to work as a decoke with no apparent negative effect on performance.

There was an issue with the paper towel apparently wicking blowby off the bottom of the filter housing, requiring frequent change, so once the decoke was apparently achieved I stopped doing it.

Looks like I need another decoke so may revisit. I'll probably try foam and/or textile this time around.