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View Full Version : Replacing a Fuel Filter on1993 SL and Similar Models


ym42
03-14-2004, 09:09 PM
First of all, do not bother with fuel pressure valve or running the engine until it stalls. As you will be disconnecting the filter, a considerable amount of fuel will spill anyway ( around a glass or so ).

Just make sure it is safe, and you are not under the car ( and you do not have to be under the car for this job ).


All the fuel that was in the filter, and in the fuel rail, will spill on the ground and/or engine parts below - there is nothing you can do about it.

As I said, you do not have to do anything under the car. You will have to raise the driver's side front of the car, and take the wheel and the splash-guard off. That will give you an easy access to the filter, which is just behind the splash-guard. You do not have to take the whole guard off, just unclip the right three fasteners - that will give you the opening big enough to work with the filter.

I had to unscrew three nuts, they seem to be metric 10 size, but on my car the ones holding the whole filter assembley to the side of the engine compartment were unusual funky light aluminium fasteners that looked like ordinary nuts hollow inside and I was able to unscrew them with my hands only. The one that was holding the filter itself inside the brace was a normal metric size10 nut, and I needed a tool for that.

Unfortunately you can not take the whole assembley with a filter and a brace out because there are other hoses attached to it, but I managed to lower the filter with the brace enough so I could see it from the opening in the splash-guard and facilitate removal of the nut holding the filter in place.


Interesting, on the other 93SL I have, the brace holding the fuel filter was made out of plastic and seemed like you could pop the filter out of the brace without unscrewing any nuts.

Disconnecting the hoses was really easy with the tool that came with the filter. I did not have to remove the air filter housing as I could easily reach for the upper hose connector. The lower one was not hard either but you do not need the tool for that.

The filter I got was made in Israel by Purolator, and I paid around 13$ for it in the Advanced Auto Parts, and the tool was included. One side of the filter had a long hose with the metal part at the end, and the other side had a plastic fitting.

sierrap615
06-18-2004, 12:28 AM
is the fuel filter one of those "OEM only" peices or will any brand work?

ym42
06-18-2004, 02:28 AM
I used the filter I bought from Advanced Auto, division of Parts America. I used aftermarket filters in all my cars, they are Purolator, I think. Most of the filters I saw say "made in Israel". Make sure there is a small plastic tool in the box, it makes installation easier.

Luke
01-26-2005, 03:07 PM
I thought you all would appreciate learning of my recent "discover", relative replacing one's fuel filter (atleast on the 95SL2).

A couple of years ago, I took off the original airfilter and it's full plastic housing. I then put in on a K&N conical air filter, which was slipped on to the end of a "S: shaped metal tubing. It's only connection was at the intake manifold. My main reason for the effort was so that I could get at the EGR valve, ECT sensors, and the Automatic transmission filter--very easily.

It was not unti last weekend, when I was double checking my valve cover gasket replacement effort, did I spend some time checking out the fuel filter. What I found was that I could inscrew the securring fuel filter bracket from above. I could very easily reach down and remove the two supporting screws. The only necessity of going under the car, would be for the purpose of detaching the fuel line connector which is back of the driver's side tire (under the driver's door).

Point of story ?? If you're going to keep the car for any length of time, put in a K&N filter system, and your work in the areas of EGT, ECT sensors, transmission filter, & fuel filter, will be so easy.