Changing a GenIII Fuel Filter

Well I searched Prius Chat hoping to find out how the change my Fuel Filter and found all the stories about how it is in tank and not replaceable, but here's the thing....... Just because it is an in tank fuel filter doesn't mean it is not replaceable.

In tank filters have been around for decades and many other Toyota's use this exact same system (Camry's Corollas even Celicas)

In Australia it is in the service schedule at 80,000 Kms (About 50,000 miles for those not yet in metric ). Maybe it has something to do with our fuel but I would like to know if the US fuel tank is the same.

So for the sake of doing my servicing as per the book I have just completed a fuel filter change on my GenIII Prius IV and have attached below a step by step guide on how I did it. Basically a pretty simple process but as we are dealing with fuel here, I put my blanket disclaimer that this is just what I did and it is up to the individual to determine if this is a task you are prepared to take on yourself. I am not a mechanic and this is not advice

All that said, I would be very interested to have a US based Prius owner pop out your back seat and have a look underneath to see it you have the same setup.

So here is how it was done.
Parts required are as follows. These were all in stock items at my local dealer as they sell them often for this service:
New top plate and Large O-Ring

Small O-Ring for inside the filter on the fuel pump.


The Filter itself:


Firstly start with a near empty tank as it will be less messy.

Remove the back seat base. Pretty simple, just put your front seats fully forward and crawl in to the rear foot well. Apply pressure in the middle of the left hand seating position with your knee and pull the seat up. Repeat this process on the right side. You will see in the picture below the 2 white catches at the edge of the carpet that the seat clips in to as a guide as to where to apply the pressure and pull.



Look under the seat for a silver plate.


It has no screws and is just stuck on with a sticky black glue. It lifts quite easily with a large screwdriver.
Once removed you will see the top of the fuel tank and the fuel filter lid.


Remove hoses and clips. Look carefully at how they clip in as 2 of them have small clips that need to be unclipped before pulling on the hoses. It is pretty logical if you take the time to look at the clips before pulling on them.

Next is the hard bit. The lid is on TIGHT. I think this is why you have to buy a new lid with the O-Ring as you will need a rubber mallet and large screwdriver to unscrew it. It takes a bit of persuasion to unscrew by placing the screwdriver on one of the notches and hitting it with the rubber mallet.

Once unscrewed the filter will pop up as it is spring loaded. You need to gently remove the entire assembly from the tank by pulling up the first section and the maneuvering the bottom half through as shown below. Be gentle here as it only just fits when on the right angle. Once the bottom section is through you then need to feed though the float, all attached in one piece.


With the whole assembly removed you need to take it to a clean workbench to install the filter as you only get part of the assembly to replace as shown below :


This may look hard but really it is quite simple. A bit of common sense and unclip all parts from the old and attach them to the new. Apart from the big white filter assembly, there is ONE REPLACEABLE PART in this process and that is the small O-Ring which slips over the end of the fuel pump located in the bottom round canister part (I forgot to take a photo of this part). The slide part needs a gentle squeeze and pul to remove from the track and the new one just pushes back on. Everything else seems to unclip and clip back in quite easily, you may need a small screwdriver to release a few clips as you go but there are no screws at all in the process.

From here you simply reassemble it and put it all back together again.

One little trick, when you are putting the filter back in and trying to screw it down, it will have spring loaded pressure pushing it back up from the tank which you need to counter while trying to screw in the top. I found that having my 10 year old standing on the top of it to hold it down gave me 2 hands to concentrate on screwing the lid back on. (10 year old may be replaced by an adult helper or something heavy to push it down).

Make sure you have the large lid O-Ring secured in place so it doesn't shift while screwing the lid back on as this is your seal to the fuel tank.

It took me about an hour all up, but I had never done it before and had no instructions, so really it is not that hard.

I am very interested to hear if the US models have the same setup. If someone could pop their seat up and take some photos for this thread that would be great.

Maybe in the US you don't need to service it as often due to fuel but it is definitely a serviceable part in here in Aus and given all Prius's come out of Japan I would not have expected that they would have a totally different setup for the USA as this would cost them more to produce. You seem to have the fuel filler on the same side as us even though your steering wheel is on the other side. So keen to get to the bottom of this.

I hope this helps someone at least in a non US region.

GAM

 

As for cost, this service at my local dealer would have cost over AUD$900 for basically the fuel filter, air filter and an oil change. I paid about AUD$450 for parts including oil so saved about AUD$450.

Now that said, the fuel filter made up over AUD$300 of the bill. But here in Australia we pay pretty much double everything for cars, so you guys in the USA will probably get it for half the price. (Multiply numbers by 0.9 for US dollars conversion)

 

Well according to this website, part #21 seems to be orderable so you must just have a different part number than us but it looks the same. Might come from a different supplier or be slightly different. It looks like your lid assembly and O-Gasket are also separate parts but ours comes as a kit.

Maybe someone can order it or contact the supplier and get the part numbers for those in the USA.

As expected your prices are way cheaper than ours as per this web site. Below is the comparison having converted my buy prices to USD for a comparison :

Fuel Plate Sub Assembly - $298 vs $90
Fuel oRing - $4.70 vs $2.87
Fuel Gasket Fuel Suction - $43 vs $21
Air Filter - $50 vs $14
Oil Filter - $19 vs $4

We really do get ripped of here in Australia.

GAM

 

That's interesting as in Australia it is listed at every 4 years/80,000Km.





I've never known a car that doesn't need a fuel filter change at some stage as Prius's don't have magic fuel, it all comes from the same pumps.

Some people have already posted fuel issues on this site and have had to have filters replaced as a result.

Do you have better quality fuel in USA and don't change the filters for any other cars either? Or is your cartridge some kind of different type internally? If anyone does the change, pull the filter apart and see what is inside. I have a video of mine which I have not yet downloaded from my camera, but is appears to be charcoal granules.

Given its only just over $110 for parts in the USA and every 4 years it's not a big deal to change it and a lot cheaper than a repair due to bad fuel or a breakdown due to a blockage.

But each to their own.

GAM