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Does a fuel filter ever go out fairly suddenly?

Motor Vehicle Maintenance & Repair Asked on April 13, 2021

I drive about 50-100 miles a day. I run the gas tank down to empty a lot but I do put seafoam in the gas every now and then.

For the past two weeks the car hasn’t started the first time in the morning. I thought that was because of the cold.

Today I am out driving on the interstate and I notice a lack of power. I didn’t notice any lack of power when I got on the interstate a few minutes earlier.

Lack of power is the primary symptom. It might be stuttering a bit at intersections but I can’t remember if it was doing that before. Right now if I put the accelerator all the way to the floor it will not respond. I have to push it slowly up to a max speed of 40-50mph.

When I noticed the problem I was an hour away from home and I had to finish what I was doing and drive it all the way back. When I got it home I turned it off. I tried restarting it but it didn’t catch. Then I tried again and it worked. I drove it around the block to see if a blockage might have been cleared but it still had no power.

I guess the other possible culprits are:

  • blocked catalytic converter

  • bad fuel pump

  • ????

I am going to replace the fuel filter first and see if that fixes it. Have you ever seen a fuel filter go bad all of a sudden like that?

2 Answers

" Sudden" is relative . I had a carburetor car lose power and gradually the maximum highway speed went from 70 mph to 60 to 50 in roughly 40 miles . I removed the in line bronze filter at the carb ,threw it away and drove home at 70 mph. Sounds like replacing your filter will fix the problem.

Correct answer by blacksmith37 on April 13, 2021

I've had those symptoms before and it was a failing ignition module. Should be able to get to that (and check it) easier than getting to the fuel pump or fuel filter (at least on most vehicles).

Answered by Brian Knoblauch on April 13, 2021

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