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240 Fuel Filter Service Interval

Rusty_ratchet

Rusty_ratchet

Member
Joined
Apr 14, 2015
Location
Southwest
My car is a 1985 Volvo 240, but I have a general 240 question. I was going over the maintenance program in the Bently book the other day and saw that they recommend replacing the fuel filters every 30k miles. Do many people replace them this frequently?
 
Good question. I have not changed mine yet (bought the car in August) but plan to just so I have a good baseline. Is this a fairly easy task? I haven't even looked into it yet.
 
Nope, not even close. It's big, the places I generally get fuel aren't dirty, and I think most station pumps had filters on them these days, all in all, it's not likely to be getting clogged up at 30K unless you're putting fairly dirty gas in.
 
Yes that is a god interval. It works out to about every three years. Unless you drive a lot more than 10k a year. Then it is probably a good idea every two. You remove the whole tray to service the filter.

Give penetrating oil time to work on the fittings. Use a counterhold wrench on all fittings and on the filter. I like to use an impact to loosen the fittings. To seal them up use a thread sealant like loctite 592 on all the threads and fitting surfaces.

Makes it a lot easier to service later and you won't have to mongo tighten the fittings to get a seal.
 
Volvos first interval is 60k. Then 30k thereafter. But with clean fuel and a big filter yeah you can go longer. I do try to replace them every three years or so.
 
lummert said:
I've read that the large fuel filters are lifetime rated and only need replacing if a problem comes up.
Click to expand...

In the past the filters have been replaced only when the pumps were replaced. For my car this was 4 years ago for the pump/filter under the car and about 10 years ago for the pump/filter in the tank (I drive 15k-17k per year). I think I'll replace the filter in the tank sometime soon.
 
I replaced the in-tank fuel filter tonight (photos below). The filter was last replaced 11 years and 74k miles ago.

IMG09501.jpg


IMG09511.jpg
 
I once had an 89 245 with 205K on the original fuel filter. Our original family owned 87 245 was changed around 120K in 2002 and not again until 2013 or so about 60K later. It is still in there. My 83 242 was last done in 2005 about 35K ago. I usually don't touch the tank filters until the tank pump gets replaced. Point is these fuel filters tend to last. I am not condoning letting them go that long by any means. I over maintain everything else, but fuel filters... I'm lazy. :shrug:
 
Volvoist said:
I once had an 89 245 with 205K on the original fuel filter. Our original family owned 87 245 was changed around 120K in 2002 and not again until 2013 or so about 60K later. It is still in there. My 83 242 was last done in 2005 about 35K ago. I usually don't touch the tank filters until the tank pump gets replaced. Point is these fuel filters tend to last. I am not condoning letting them go that long by any means. I over maintain everything else, but fuel filters... I'm lazy. :shrug:
Click to expand...

That's good to know. I'm generally trying to follow the recommended service intervals for the car, but it looks like the fuel filters aren't a big deal. I think that the in-tank filter looked a bit dirty, but not really bad. I was also thinking that it is a lot smaller than the filter under the car, so the one under the car is probably fine.
 
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