1998 Accord LX (160,000 miles) auto. trans.

I am thinking about doing preventive maintenance on my daughters car, due to high miles and age. The starter already failed and that was replaced about 2 months ago. Already replaced dist. cap and rotor, and battery cables (corroded).

I am thinking about changing the fuel pump and fuel filter since I do not want the car to die on my daughter while she is driving. Is this a big deal? I have done just about everything outside of the engine on several cars, but never the fuel pump. When I look in the manual, it looks like a 4-5 hour job. Is that about right?

What about the fuel filter? Is that a big deal? all fuel filters on other cars were easy to replace, but on this car, it looks like you have to removed a few things to get the filter out.

Any advice?

 

Fuel filter is integral w/ fuel pump and located in fuel tank under the car.

I have removed fuel pump on my 94EX which is similar. Car must be elevated to max height on jack stands to provide access to remove tank. All work is under car. I recollect spending better part of two days to replace fuel pump. It's not an easy 1-man job.

Unless you have fuel pressure problems, suggest leaving this alone. The possibility of creating a problem where none exists is probably more than liklihood of fuel filter/fuel pump problem. Fuel pump and fuel filter are not maintenance items and rarely have we seen problems associated w/ fuel pressure. Fuel delivery is another issue; main fuel relay (located under driver's dash) is a notorious weak link. Fuel pumps do fail but much less frequently than main fuel relay.

Whatever you decide, get a shop manual for your car. Suggest automanualsource.com emanual for $22.

good luck

 

Starting in 1998, there was an access panel in the trunk floor to remove the fuel pump, so you don't have to drop the gas tank.

 

X2. Do a search on this site for "fuel pump". It's rare when one fails on even really high mileage cars. And there's no conventional inline filter on 6th Gen cars; just a metallic sock.

 

Really !!! ?? So I just need to look in the trunk and pull the carpet up?

If that is true, it will be SO much easier !!!

 

As others have suggested, "Just say no." Fuel pumps and filters are as a general rule, good for an easy 300,000 miles and rarely fail even beyond that point.

 

OKAY... I guess I will leave it alone. Hopefully, if it starts to go bad, it will lose fuel pressure or give me some kind of warning, instead of just cutting out instantly.

thanks for the advice !

 

I've had one fuel pump failure on my 94EX. It would fail intermittently while driving, usually during heavy braking. Car would not restart immediately. It would restart later, by "bumping" the pump w/ repeated key movements; off/on/off/...

I appreciate you're trying to reduce potential problems for your daughter. I have two daughters and have had similar thoughts.

One thing that makes me feel slightly better is that I see late model cars and older cars pulled to the side of the road w/ about same frequency. My interpretation is that all vehicles can let you down at most inopportune moment and age has only a moderate influence.

My 94EX fuel pump stopped in middle of rush hour traffic while making a high speed, multi-lane turn to another freeway. No PS, no vacuum brake boost but I managed to manuever to emergency lane and stop. It restarted after a minute or so, saving me from a long wait for a tow truck. My heart was beating like a pile driver.

Make sure your girls are ready for anything!

good luck