Replacing Fuel Filter on 93 del Sol

It should be fairly easy on this year of Honda. Worst case, you'll have to buy a wrench/socket or two and be persistent in getting the joints freed.

The steps appear at:

's parts site should have some drawings to help you locate the filter, if needed, too.

Elle Original owner, 1991 Civic, filter took a couple hours to replace the first time many years ago (mostly due to not having a very good wrench/socket/adapter etc. set). Now takes about a half hour.

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why do you want to do it? what problems are you experiencing? how many miles on the vehicle?

There are some misfires when engine idles. None that I can discern while driving the car. Drives well. It is a 93 Del Sol with 88K miles. A neighbour suggested changing the fuel filter. Also said it may have sticky valves and I could try some cleaning agent like Techron.

Recent work done to the car are: New Timing Belt New water pump (All Honda parts)

After the timing belt was replaced, noticed engine knocking during acceleration after the car warmed up. Got lots of advise, and finally put in high octane gas and fuel system cleaner and the knocking went away 99.9%. Not sure if I have to keep on putting high octane gas.

Next replaced spark plugs, plug wires, distributor cap and rotor. The plug wires had the original 93 date stamp on it. Assume all these are originals and may have never been replaced. I got the car about 6 months ago. Had ordered the fuel filter at this time. ( All Honda parts)

Since I have already done so much work, why not replace the fuel filter also....:)

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Plugged fuel filter never manifests at idle. It will show up when you've loaded all your belongings into the car (and a ski box on top) and are climbing a mountain trying to pass an 18-wheeler into a headwind. That's when the need for fuel flow is the highest. Sitting in your driveway uses almost zero gas. Even starting it uses very little. Techron is for sticking / dribbling injectors, not valves.

Hope this helps.

'Curly'

ok, timing belt gets changed, engine starts knocking. clue: those two events are connected!

what does it say in the owners manual? if it's not a high compression b16 vtec, it's designed to run on regular. fix the problem, don't fudge it with unnecessary filters and the incorrect grade of gas!

the fuel filter won't make the slightest bit of difference to an idle problem.

#1 likely cause of this problem is related to timing of both the ignition and the valve train. if the timing belt is loose, a /very/ common occurrence if the belt has been changed by someone not experienced with honda, the ignition sensors lash back and forth making it both very hard to set timing accurately and making it hard for the engine computer to fire the ignition correctly. if you don't already have it, buy the factory honda workshop manual from helm.com and read on how to set the belt properly. then you can set the ignition timing correctly [not forgetting to do it with the service connector in place] and enjoy a happy motor once again. also be open to the possibility of the timing belt being out one tooth...

Thanks. Can you suggest what to use for cleaning valves?

Yes, and it sounds like the fuel filter is due, even if it's not behind the problems.

Check the ignition timing at some point real soon, too.

Double check: What brand plugs did you use?

Always wise to start from a "clean baseline," (eliminating all the little stuff that has to be replaced periodically anyway) as well.

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Thanks. I have to talk to my friend who did the timing work. He knows what he is doing. Let me see if I can convince him to give the belt another look for correct tensioning. I don't think it is off by a whole tooth. It probably is a bit loose.

Lots of thanks to Jim. After checking the timing light found ignition timing was way off. Next took the valve cover off and timing belt cover off, aligned the timing marks per manual, looked at the mark on the crank pulley, it was off by 18 degrees, which corresponds to exactly one tooth on the cam timing pulley. The guy who did the timing belt work got confused with the red ingition timing mark and the white TDC cam timing mark, and used the red ignition mark as TDC.

Now the car is fixed and I have a happy motor. Thanks Jim you were right on the mark.

thanks for the feedback and confirmation - it's good for the archives when people take the trouble to do that because it allows others to follow your diagnostics to a successful result, not just "try everything ever mentioned".