On Fri, 28 Jul 2006, Marshall Booth wrote: > A plugged main fuel filter can take a few seconds off the 0-60 time and > limit hill climbing capacity and top speed. Paradoxically, fuel economy > often suffers as well.
Admittedly this was an OM617, but I had a plugged pre-filter that gave me grief; my wife complained that she was driving the car to work and it acted like she took her foot off the accelerator. Being literal, I wsent and checked out the linkages (lubed them all since none were broken) and cleaned out the ALDA line. Foolishly told her it was resolved. Same thing the next day.... Well I took it to work (driving I-70), and it was running fine. I get it about 10-15 miles out from the baltimore beltway and it suddenly starts going slower and slower; I could manage about 50mph on a slight downhill (65mph limit, and we won't discuss the actual speed; the troopers seem to run 95+ in the morning) and maybe 35 uphill. I took the first exit and pulled in behind the first 7-11 and popped the hood.. nothing looked amiss until I saw the prefilter was BLACK (solid). I dug into the spare tire well and got my spare out (vise-grips make a good hose pinch tool)... The old prefilter refused to drain since it was so plugged. The car ran much better, though it got a dose of algicide that night and a new main filter, then repeated the prefilter change when it turned black. No problems since. (The car only had about 8k on that prefilter that plugged) -j.
