Separate fuel filter & regulator?

[tjd83]

With over 107K on the clock, I figure I'm overdue for a fuel filter. So I went shopping for one, and was shocked at the prices! The Saturn dealer told me why - the filter has a built-in pressure regulator. Ugh, I'm not really liking the idea of spending close to $100 per 30K miles, in addition to the oil, filter, air filter, etc. I spoke with a friend of mine (who is a certificed mechanic & all-around hot-rod guy as well), and he had an interesting suggestion, so I thought I would bring it up here to see what those with more experience think.

He suggested replacing the stock filter with a plain in-line filter and a separate pressure regulator, both of which ought to be cheaper that the combined specialized part in there now. It would make maintenance easier and cheaper. It would also allow me to run a higher pressure to the injectors in the future (assuming the fuel pump can handle it), if and when I feel like doing something silly like putting a turbo in the car.

The car in question is a '99 SC2. My philosiphy is that I like to keep the car well maintained, replace parts with better than stock when practical, and hopefully get several hundred thousand miles out of it.

[nivlem7]

These will also work and are cheaper:

NAPA FIL3100 - I got this one for about $40.
FRAM G9370
WIX 33100
Autozone FF897
Purolator F65501

Technically, you could do a separate filter and regulator, but I wouldn't recommend it.

30k? I believe the replacement interval is 100k for the fuel filter.

[twosaturns]

Originally Posted by tjd83

With over 107K on the clock, I figure I'm overdue for a fuel filter. So I went shopping for one, and was shocked at the prices! The Saturn dealer told me why - the filter has a built-in pressure regulator. Ugh, I'm not really liking the idea of spending close to $100 per 30K miles, in addition to the oil, filter, air filter, etc. I spoke with a friend of mine (who is a certificed mechanic & all-around hot-rod guy as well), and he had an interesting suggestion, so I thought I would bring it up here to see what those with more experience think.

He suggested replacing the stock filter with a plain in-line filter and a separate pressure regulator, both of which ought to be cheaper that the combined specialized part in there now. It would make maintenance easier and cheaper. It would also allow me to run a higher pressure to the injectors in the future (assuming the fuel pump can handle it), if and when I feel like doing something silly like putting a turbo in the car.

The car in question is a '99 SC2. My philosiphy is that I like to keep the car well maintained, replace parts with better than stock when practical, and hopefully get several hundred thousand miles out of it.

shop around. www.rockauto.com has your filter for $55.79.

[tjd83]

Originally Posted by nivlem7

These will also work and are cheaper:

NAPA FIL3100 - I got this one for about $40.
FRAM G9370
WIX 33100
Autozone FF897
Purolator F65501

Thanks for the suggestion - I prefer to get parts from NAPA anyway, so I'll call them.

Originally Posted by nivlem7

Technically, you could do a separate filter and regulator, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Out of curiosity, why not?

Originally Posted by nivlem7

30k? I believe the replacement interval is 100k for the fuel filter.

The guy at the dealership parts couter told me 30k, which sounded about right for a regular filter, but not considering the price of these.

[ssicarman]

The fuel filter on your car does not get changed every 30k miles. I believe that it is 100k miles. works out to about the same of less than the older S-series.

[cloud819]

I thought it was every 60K. Still probably not often enough to worry about too much. I'd just stick with the stock one.

[eRic 02sc2]

Originally Posted by tjd83

With over 107K on the clock, I figure I'm overdue for a fuel filter. So I went shopping for one, and was shocked at the prices! The Saturn dealer told me why - the filter has a built-in pressure regulator. Ugh, I'm not really liking the idea of spending close to $100 per 30K miles, in addition to the oil, filter, air filter, etc. I spoke with a friend of mine (who is a certificed mechanic & all-around hot-rod guy as well), and he had an interesting suggestion, so I thought I would bring it up here to see what those with more experience think.

He suggested replacing the stock filter with a plain in-line filter and a separate pressure regulator, both of which ought to be cheaper that the combined specialized part in there now. It would make maintenance easier and cheaper. It would also allow me to run a higher pressure to the injectors in the future (assuming the fuel pump can handle it), if and when I feel like doing something silly like putting a turbo in the car.

The car in question is a '99 SC2. My philosiphy is that I like to keep the car well maintained, replace parts with better than stock when practical, and hopefully get several hundred thousand miles out of it.

the 1998-2002 fuel pressure regular/fuel filter is replaced every 100,000 miles. get an OEM one from Saturn and be done with it. attempting to replace it with a 1991-97 style fuel filter and separate fuel pressure regulator will probably cost you more than the cost of just replacing the fuel filter/regulator combo on a 1998-2002 Saturn since there's more to it than just swapping on a filter and regulator. the 1991-97 style fuel filters were replaced at 48-60,000 mile intervals if my memory is correct from when I had a 1992 SC and 1996 SC2. look in your Saturn S-Series Handbook for the service intervals.

http://www.autozone.com/az/cds/en_us...rInfoPages.htm

[tjd83]

Originally Posted by eRic 02sc2

the 1998-2002 fuel pressure regular/fuel filter is replaced every 100,000 miles. get an OEM one from Saturn and be done with it.

Fair enough. Is there a reason to buy it from Saturn, or will any suitable model work as well? Specifically, I am thinking of the NAPA part listed above.

Originally Posted by eRic 02sc2

http://www.autozone.com/az/cds/en_us...rInfoPages.htm

A useful link, but kind of funny, considering that Autozone told me they can't get the part at all. Told me it was a "lifetime part, you have to get it from a dealer."

[rc1488]

You want to go to NAPA/advanced auto/your favorite autostore and ask for a filter for a 2.2L s-10 flex fuel. This is the same exact part the s-series uses just cheaper. And yes it does work as both Barnowl and Richpin (who was the first to realize this) have used them

[97sleeper]

Originally Posted by tjd83

A useful link, but kind of funny, considering that Autozone told me they can't get the part at all. Told me it was a "lifetime part, you have to get it from a dealer."

Thats funny, cause I bought mine from my guys over at the "Zone". I've been in there so much in the past 1.5 years that they actually set up a discount account through a dealership that I used to work for......and they still let me use it. I think it was like $60 with tax.

[airon1974]

Has anyone had any issues with the Napa Gold FIL3100 filter. I have a $10 off coupon so it will only cost me 43, but I noticed the outer dimensions are a bit different???? Thanks, Aaron

[OldNuc]

Originally Posted by rc1488

You want to go to NAPA/advanced auto/your favorite autostore and ask for a filter for a 2.2L s-10 flex fuel. This is the same exact part the s-series uses just cheaper. And yes it does work as both Barnowl and Richpin (who was the first to realize this) have used them

It is far from identical and has caused problems. richpin no longer uses it. Use a WIX 33731 at $54.00 from RockAuto Or the NAPA equivilant to that WIX number.

[PurdueGuy]

It's 100k interval, and many, many people have gotten far more miles than that out of them without issue. I replaced mine at about 165k miles, and it still wasn't causing issues.

[madpogue]

Originally Posted by tjd83

The guy at the dealership parts couter told me 30k, which sounded about right for a regular filter, but not considering the price of these.

Your FIRST reference for such things should be the owner's manual. I've never bought a used car without the owner's manual (retaining the manual is an indicator of the previous owner's responsibility), but a manual on eBay costs less than just about any one maintenance part that you could avoid buying by referencing it.

[PurdueGuy]

Originally Posted by madpogue

Your FIRST reference for such things should be the owner's manual. I've never bought a used car without the owner's manual (retaining the manual is an indicator of the previous owner's responsibility), but a manual on eBay costs less than just about any one maintenance part that you could avoid buying by referencing it.

Not sure you can really judge whether they retained the manual by whether it's in the car - they could have easily put it on a shelf in the garage for easy reference and simply not put it back in the car when they sold it. In fact, how many owners leave the manual in their glove box and never, ever, ever look at it?