fuel filter - short rant

Today I finally replaced the fuel filter on my '93 F-150... pretty painless once I bought the set of special tools to release the hoses.

But in the name of all that is good an holy, would it have been SO hard for Ford to put it a foot farther forward on the frame rail? I haven't a clue how someone with hands any bigger than I could release the inlet side hose... I could barely do it myself. What the hell was Ford thinking? if they'd just mounted it in FRONT of the side mount gas tank it'd be cake easy to service it but NOOOO... they have to hide it BEHIND it... is there a trick to make it any easier or do you just have to scrape up your left arm to get in there?

I did get it replaced, after some cussing. Good thing, too, because I could barely blow through the old one.

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel
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I took my Explorer to Jiffy Lube for regular oil change and asked them to replace the fuel filter. After fighting with it for 30 minutes, they gave up, told me I'd have to take it to a dealer -- and gave me my oil change for free.

Reply to
Kickin' Ass and Takin' Names

That's reason to never go to Jiffy Lube again. If they don't know how to get the filter off, they do not deserve your business.

PS You can buy the plastic tool for about $5.00, and the filter comes off easily in less than a minute.

Reply to
Jeff Strickland

Jiffy Lube is like any other place....You have good locations and bad locations. I reluctantly had my oil changed at a location by me once as it was just too friggin' cold out and I didn't feel like laying on my back in snow. I would not go inside and watched them like a hawk. With Jiffy, there apparently are "franchise owned locations" and "family/private owned locations". The one I went to was a family owned location, with the owner out in the garage working with his 2 sons, while his daughter and wife handle the inside stuff. Anyway, he used to own his own shop. They do what they do well, and I've come to trust ONLY this location, and have even migrated indoors for coffee once or twice. One other time, I visited a Franchise location as I was away on vacation, and those guys are the ones that give the place a bad rep...horrible. Like I said, I only go when the temperatures are too inhospitable, and I only get express (oil & filter) stuff done and decline all the other services that they are obligated to tell you via franchise rules....

IYM

Reply to
<IYM>

messagenews: snipped-for-privacy@w3g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...

I'm sure I could have changed the filter on my friend's nearly identical truck (standard cab, shortbed, only rear mount gas tank) in under a minute, but on my truck (extended cab, shortbed, two gas tanks) the side mount gas tank hides the rear fitting for the filter and the space between the tank and frame rail is such that I can only get my hand and a little bit of my wrist in there, unless there is a trick to it that I was missing. (like the mount pops off the frame or something)

Not a *HUGE* deal, but Ford could have made it a lot more service- friendly by simply moving the filter forward a bit.

nate

Reply to
N8N

Not always. I got a '94 full size Bronco which the previous owner had screwed up the springs or something and it had to be cut off so you could push the thing in and let the springs go back into place before you could get the rest of the filter parts out. There have been a lot of rants about that type of fitting on the various Ford sites over the years, so I'd say just be happy with the free oil change and find out whether they further screwed up the fitting.

Regards

Reply to
Rashputin

messagenews: snipped-for-privacy@w3g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...

The filter comes off easily in less than a minute??

Tell that to the service manager at my local Ford dealer -- took his tech 45 minutes to remove the old filter and install a new one. I told him about my experience at JiffyLube and he told me, yes, the filter is a sonofabitch to get to.

Reply to
Kickin' Ass and Takin' Names

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