Eric Toften
Member
Hey all. Been a lot of questions and some incorrect information posted about some of this stuff on here. I just did this service this past week and figured I would post a detailed write up on what I did. I changed the fuel filter first. You need three tools: a 10mm deep well socket, something to turn it (ratchet or nutdriver), and a small flat head screwdriver. It helps to put the vehicle up on ramps or jack stands but is not required. Now you need to kill the fuel pressure. I always use the shutoff switch in the passenger footrest area. It's the device that looks like a red button. Just pull back the panel. It's not attached at the front. And unplug the switch. You can pull the fuel pump fuse from the underhood fuse panel if you wish. I have seen a lot of wrong info here. One post said it was fuse 23. My truck fuse 23 is the 4x4 fuse. My owners manual says fuse 4 is fuel pump / fuel injectors, fuse 44 is fuel injectors, and relay 49 is the fuel pump relay. You DO NOT want to kill power to the injectors. If you do the injectors are closed. That means pressure is still built up from the tank all the way to them. If you are going to kill the power from under hood pull the fuel pump relay. The injectors will still open but no pump forcing pressure. Crank the truck. It will die in a second or two. Next find the filter. This was the hardest part for me. LOL. It's not on the rail like you would expect. It is mounted behind a metal cover secured to the rock shield directly ON (yes ON) the front of the fuel tank (passenger side at the B pillar). remove the two nuts with the 10 mm socket. When working on nuts and bolts under the truck I always put a little WD-40 or 3 in 1 household oil on the threads before removing them to help prevent locking them up. The filter is right there. Use the flat head screwdriver to push up on the tabs of the output side connector. Then just pull the hose off. Use the flat head screw driver to pry open the tab on the tank side. Then push the tab up and pull the hose off. Couple of notes. You took pressure off the fuel lines earlier. You did not take out the entire volume of fuel. Have a small catch can ready for the runout. Also, note the direction of the fuel filter for when you install the new one. Lastly, don't do this with a full tank. You can accidently siphon fuel from the tank by dropping the open end of the hose below the level of fuel in the tank. Slide the filter onto the hoses. Push the tabs down. place the filter back into position. Note the cover has a ridge that acts like a retaining plate. Wiggle the filter as you replace the plate and you will feel it rest in place and no longer move. Tighten the nuts. Replace whatever you did to kill the fuel pressure and fire it up. Just for giggles pour out your old fuel filter. Notice the stuff that looks like Jameson scotch coming out. Don't drink it though. Now you know why you change the filter every 30000 miles. I did the air intake, MAF and throttle body right after doing this. It only makes sense since it uses the same tools. I will do a separate post for those details though. Hope this helped.
