I changed the fuel filter in my 2008 XK. It has 100,000 miles and is running well.

I’m glad I changed it as when I turned the old filter upside down and shook it the fuel that emerged was some of the worst I have ever seen. Brown, rusty appearing and a little gritty.

So, the car might run better at higher rpms now (or not) that is the good thing the bad thing is I keep asking myself what the previous owners fed this engine or is it residue from the gas tank or…?

I have run a bit of Red Line Fuel Injector Cleaner through it, maybe that loosened crud in the tank, lines or whatever else is part of the system.

Just sharing, also this is a very easy quick job that doesn’t require any special fuel disconnect tools…just press the blue or grey button on the fuel line end connector and pull the line off, reverse for installation but be certain you hear a click.



wj

 

well that’s really curious because I have a 2006S type R and I replace my fuel filter at about 125,000 miles and found the same exact crap in my filter. It was brown mucky ugly looking and I thought the same thing but now I’m wondering if it’s just the gas that we get. My car was from Southern California to and well taken care of

 

Having replaced the fuel filters on most of my cars when bought, and for maintenance tasks.This together with a few from breakers yards, to try and obtain fuel line clips.
They all when inverted discharge brown, black particles and greyish liquid just as you describe.(rust, water, sludge)

From Audi, Volvo and Jaguar fuel filters, in the mileage range of 50,60,70,80K miles.

My theory on this is the fuel supply storage chain, (petrol storage tanks) hold most of this stuff and you pick it up to a varying extent during refills.

Apologies if this offends any Petrol stations.

 

This makes me wonder outloud what the inside of the fuel tank looks like and what the filter for the 5 liter must look like?...coated with dirt/rust etc.
WJ

 

I recently removed the nearly 14 year old fuel tank from mine for the fuel cell conversion and it was pretty clean. Also replaced the fuel filter, didn't notice any sludge but wasn't looking either.

EDIT:

Also replaced fuel filter on the 3.0 litre SC Disco and it was definitely clean after 100K+ miles/5 years.

 

I had to replace the fuel pump on the S-Type after 20 years and 55K miles and the pump module was also coated in a thin brown film. I expect that this is unaviodable as the fuel itself is a good solvent and will pick up all sorts of material on its way into the tank. As the fuel pump wears, does it also create fine particulate matter and drop it into the fuel? The down-stream fuel filter was probably changed at about 40k miles and wasn't too bad.

Question: If there is a inlet filter on the fuel pump, why have a down-stream filter? Is that to catch wear from the pump more than dirt from the tank?