FYI: avoid NAPA fuel filters, also some replacement tips

[1000-oaks]

Normally I get a chuckle from the "OEM parts only" gang here, but in the case of a NAPA fuel filter I just installed I'll have to agree with them...

My filter replacement was moving along smoothly and I hoped to have it done in an hour or so. Then came time to bolt the outlet line to the new filter, and no matter how much filter and line wiggling I did the threads would just not engage.

After about an hour of cussing and trying and taking the filter on and off to see if the banjo bolt would thread with the filter out of the truck (it did, easily), I took the filter over to my surface plate (perfectly flat stone used by machinists to check things) and put a precision degree finder on the filter outlets. Turns out the NAPA outlet tab is rotated 4.5 degrees CCW from the factory position. So I put the rubber plug back in the filter outlet and filed down the offending side of the outlet tab a bit. Bingo, the banjo bolt threaded right in, easy as pie. The flaw was so minor it was invisible with the naked eye, but enough to misalign the hard line head on the filter.

I see that another forum member had a similar problem with his NAPA filter a few months ago, only his was waaaay out of whack and was noticable at a glance.


A few tips:

Handy tools:

- 20" or longer 3/8"-extension bar and a swivel, so you can get to the 12mm filter mounting bolts from underneath the truck.

- 17mm open-ended wrench for banjo bolts.


Making the job easier (on a '95 to '97 anyway):

- Disconnect battery, always a good idea when working with gas, especially around the hot lead on the starter.

- Leave truck parked overnight so fuel pressure drops to zero. (unless you like gasoline spraying down your arms)

- Remove driver's side wheel.

- Remove rubber fender curtain to right of shock tower.

- Remove fuel line bracket that's bolted to shock tower, so you can push fuel lines out of your way when getting at the outlet banjo bolt. (If the outlet bolt is too tight to loosen with just the 17mm wrench, use a medium-sized pry bar under the filter to lever down the wrench.)

- Loosen ground wire bolted to intake manifold near the oil dipstick, so you can push wire left and out of your way.

- Disconnect rubber breather hose that goes from under intake manifold to charcoal canister (just to right of above ground wire).

- Disconnect wiring and remove ignition coil (12mm bolt under coil) to really give yourself some room to work on the inlet banjo bolt from above.

- Before attacking the filter mounting bolts from under truck, open the plastic clamp that holds the fat bundle of wires in place and move the bundle over to make it easier to get to the filter mounting bolt on the engine side.

- Before installing new filter, loosely thread-in the filter mounting bolt on the engine side. Slot the filter tab on the engine side with a hack saw, so that you can slide it around the loose mounting bolt. This way you won't have to try to thread the mounting bolt behind the filter once it's in place, something that doesn't look like it would be much fun.

Enjoy!

[gotmud]

OR...

Call CDan (et al) and ask for 23300-69045. Guaranteed plug and play.

[hj60]

NAPA has done this before. Actually, it may be Wix' fault cos we had the same problem when we switched to CarQuest...
Our fleet's 3 old Hiluxes and 1 old Camry all had similar fuel filters (that look like smaller versions of 1Fz-FE ones).They'd send what the parts book said was the right one. It wasn't. We had to try a few before we got the correct ones.
NAPA gold filters are made by Wix.
CarQuest premium filters are made by Wix and Racor.
The only other brand I'd buy is Toyota.