Honda Car Forum

Some have said that a fuel filter on a Honda lasts for the life of the
car.

However, I have about 168,000 miles on my '98 Civic. I have detected that
my fuel efficiency is starting to lower a bit.

Is this due to a dirty fuel filter or just the age of the car?

warlock162 wrote:
>
> Some have said that a fuel filter on a Honda lasts for the life of the
> car. However, I have about 168,000 miles on my '98 Civic. I have detected that
> my fuel efficiency is starting to lower a bit.
>
> Is this due to a dirty fuel filter or just the age of the car?


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Search is your friend.

Plugged fuel filters usually manifest by causing misfire when passing a
semi-trailer unit while climbing a hill in a rainstorm with four
passengers. If that's not happening to you, just run a bottle of Chevron
Techron thru the gas tank twice a year, and do a tune-up as specified in
your manual.

You can change it if it makes you feel good. I slipped mine off, shook
it with fuel inside, then gently blew it out backwards with compressed
air. The dirty stuff is gone.

'Curly'

warlock162 wrote:
> Some have said that a fuel filter on a Honda lasts for the life of the
> car.
>
> However, I have about 168,000 miles on my '98 Civic. I have detected that
> my fuel efficiency is starting to lower a bit.
>
> Is this due to a dirty fuel filter or just the age of the car?


I have a 97 and my mileage has not changed (in fact its better b/c now
that i'm older I don't hit the gas so hard). I do try to fill up with
chevron a least once a month. The rest of the time I am putting
Maverick or a non top tier brand in. (which is dumb because I only save
..01 a gallon but the Maverick is on my way to work so its easy). I
don't have as many miles yet but I haven't seen anything wrong with my
engine at this point. The suggestion to run the chevron techron stuff
is good, or you can just fill up with chevron gas for a couple of tanks
and see what that does (might be an even cheaper solution).

warlock162 wrote:
> Some have said that a fuel filter on a Honda lasts for the life of the
> car.
>
> However, I have about 168,000 miles on my '98 Civic. I have detected that
> my fuel efficiency is starting to lower a bit.
>
> Is this due to a dirty fuel filter or just the age of the car?
>
clogged filters restrict fuel flow, not increase it, so it's unlikely
that the filter's increasing your consumption. run injector cleaner
through it to make sure they're not dribbling. other things to check
are the pcv valve and the health of the ignition system - weak spark
reduces engine output.