How do you change the fuel filter on a 1997 Volvo 850?

Answer 1

In concept, replacing the fuel filter on a 1997 Volvo 850 is quite straightforward. Locate the fuel filter, elevate the car to give yourself some working room, disconnect the inlet and outlet fuel lines, loosen the bolt on the bracket that secures the fuel filter, remove the old filter, insert the new filter - be careful that the flow indicator arrows on the filter point toward the engine and away from the gasoline tank , reconnect the fuel lines, tighten the bolt on the clamp that holds the fuel filter, lower the car, start the engine and check for leaks. In practice, there are a number of difficulties that can turn a 15 minute job into two hours of pulling, tugging, and general frustration. What follows is a step-by-step of how I replaced the filter and some of the things that can make the job more difficult than you might expect, and what to do about them. 1. The fuel filter is on the passenger side underneath the car, close to the rear wheel-well, just forward of the rear axle and is a couple feet in front of the fuel tank. Look for the fuel lines that are secured to the underbody of the car, just inside the rocker panels. The filter is about 5 inches long and 3 1/2 inches in diameter (it will look like the new filter that you bought for the job, although likely it will be covered with grime or asphalt type undercoating). I found it convenient to jack up the car a few inches to provide more working space (be careful that the vehicle is on a level surface, in gear, parking brake engaged and blocks used under opposite front and rear wheels to prevent any movement. If you jack up the wheels off the ground, you should use jack stands.) 2. Disconnecting the inlet and outlet fuel lines should be straightforward: there was some tape around the fuel line where it entered the fuel filter - remove this. Pull forward/wiggle the outlet fuel line (the one closest to the front of the car/the engine) to remove it from the outlet nipple of the fuel filter There is no wire or other type of clamp securing the fuel lines onto the filter inlet and outlet. Repeat the process for the inlet side to the filter. Unfortunately, in my case the filter had not been changed in 10 years and the lines were stuck very tight, aggravated by asphalt undercoating sprayed on to help rustproof the underbody. It was very difficult to break them loose and remove them from the filter. Hopefully, you will be able to remove the inlet and outlet fuel lines easily by hand. 3. Use a 12 mm wrench or socket to loosen (turn counterclockwise) the nut that holds the metal C-shaped bracket that secures the fuel filter to the undercarriage. It all possible, do not take out the bolt because it will be very hard to put it back in place. Slide the old filter toward the rear and remove it. It will contain a few ounces of gasoline, so be careful. I poured the excess fuel into the container I use for my lawnmower gasoline. 4. Insert the new fuel filter through the backside of the holding clamp, with the flow indicator arrows pointing toward the engine - this ensures that fuel flows in the proper direction through the filter. Slide the inlet and outlet fuel lines onto the front and rear nipples of the new filter. Position the fuel filter so that the holding clamp is in the center, and tighten (turn clockwise) the 12 mm restraining bolt. Double check that the fuel lines cover the inlet/outlet nipples and are firmly in place. You may want to put some electrical tape over the fuel lines to further secure them to the nipples, or put some kind of middle clamp (I just used tape since this is what had been done before). 5. Lower the vehicle, start the engine (it will take a little longer than normal to reestablish the fuel flow), check for leaks at the inlet and outlet of the fuel filter. If it's leak-tight, you're done! Note: it took me a lot longer than I anticipated because of the difficulty in removing the fuel lines from the old filter, as noted above. I completely removed the 12 mm retaining bolt and took the fuel filter out to give more leverage to remove the inlet/outlet fuel lines that were stuck onto the filter. This proved to make it very difficult to re-fasten the C-shaped metal bracket - it acted like a strong spring because the bracket is fairly thick and I had great difficulty trying to squeeze it tight enough so that I could realign the 12 mm bolt with the nut. I would get very close to engaging the threads, but was unsuccessful in dozens of tries (further aggravated because it was a December day and starting to get chilly). I tried lots of things like using vice grip pliers to hold the two parts of the clamp in place, but could never get it quite right. I finally lined up the nut on the top part of the clamp above the mounting bracket, inserted the 12 mm bolt directly into the nut without putting it through the metal band (C- shaped bracket) and held a fair by using a small C-clamp. This was easy to do because, of course, I was not fighting the tension of the metal bracket. Once the upper nut was held in place and aligned with the hole through the metal mounting bracket, I was able to position the C-shaped fuel filter holding clamp so that I could insert the 12 mm bolt and finally get the threads to engage with the nut that was held stationary by the small C-clamp. Anyway, I hope this helps other people avoid some of the pitfalls that I stumbled into. I do most of the general maintenance on my cars (oil and filters, brake pads and discs, sparkplugs wires , etc.) but admit that I'm not always as mechanically inclined as I'd like to be. I get the job done, but it often takes me longer than planned because I don't do these things that often. Brake pads can last three or four years so I don't get much practice. And b it seems like something always sticks and is very hard to remove . As mentioned above I had never changed the fuel filter on the Volvo 850. Ironically, I'm selling this car and am unlikely to ever change another Volvo fuel filter.