Can A Bad Fuel Filter Cause A Car Not To Start?

Just similar a practiced tailgate party, your engine requires 3 basic things to go cooking, fuel, oxygen and heat. In your engine — agree the bratwurst — oxygen is delivered by the intake, heat by spark or pinch, and fuel by the fuel pump. Before fuel gets to the cylinder, though, information technology passes through tubes and fuel filters, maybe one or two fuel pumps, and finally to the fuel injectors. If yous're having trouble starting your engine, a failure in any one of these areas could exist the culprit, simply tin can a fuel filter stop a machine from starting?

Can a Fuel Filter Terminate a Motorcar From Starting? Absolutely!

Different your automobile's electrical system, which is a parallel system, the fuel organisation is a serial system. In other words, if the CIG fuse blows, it doesn't affect the windshield wipers. In the fuel system though, any issues will affect the entire arrangement. In general, the fuel is picked upward in the fuel tank and delivered to the fuel injectors, more or less following this path:

Fuel Screen: Captures larger contaminants, over 25 to 400 µm, like rust, calibration or dirt.
Rotary Fuel Pump: Pressurizes the system, up to 15 psi, for carburetors, or lxx psi for fuel injection systems.
Fuel Filter: Captures finer particles, from 1 to 75 µm, such as dust, pollen and silt. Diesel fuel filters might split up water, also.
Fuel Pressure Regulator: Maintains constant fuel pressure, bleeding off excess to the tank.
Mechanical Fuel Pump: On gasoline directly injection and diesel engines, bumps fuel force per unit area upward to 4,500 to 25,000 psi.
Fuel Injectors: Delivers precise fuel pulses to each cylinder, controlled by the engine control module.

Seeing as the fuel tin but accept one path from the fuel tank to the fuel injectors — some components might vary, depending on year, make and model — information technology'due south easy to see how a fuel filter trouble tin stop your engine from starting.

How Can a Fuel Filter End a Car From Starting?

Fuel filter clogging is the nearly common error, acquired by excessive contaminants in the fuel. This is usually considering whatever fuel source hasn't been taking care of their ain filtering equipment. In high-mileage vehicles, this can but be the buildup over years and years of operation — over 100,000 miles, a thirty-mpg vehicle's fuel filter volition process at least 3,333 gallons of fuel.

At get-go, a chock-full fuel filter might manifest itself as a fuel trim problem, hesitation or poor performance, but somewhen could cause cylinder misfires or starve the engine of fuel, preventing information technology from starting in the showtime place. While a clogged fuel filter might sideline your car for a day, there's a bright side to your engine stalling out: Your chock-full fuel filter was doing its job, preventing damage to other parts of the fuel system. Install a new fuel filter and you'll exist back on the road.

Check out all the fuel & emission organisation parts bachelor on NAPA Online or trust one of our 17,000 NAPA AutoCare locations for routine maintenance and repairs. For more than information on how a bad fuel filter can finish your engine from starting, chat with a knowledgeable expert at your local NAPA Car PARTS store.

Photo courtesy of Public Domain Pictures.

Benjamin Jerew View All

Ben has been taking things apart since he was 5, and putting them back together again since he was 8. After dabbling in DIY repairs at dwelling house and on the subcontract, he found his calling in the CGCC Motorcar Repair program. Afterward he held his ASE CMAT for 10 years, Ben decided he needed a change. Now, he writes on automotive topics across the spider web and around the world, including new automotive engineering science, transportation legislation, emissions, fuel economy and auto repair.