What does a fuel filter do?

Your motorcycle has a stock fuel filter that sits inside the tank before the fuel pump and its job is to help ensure the petrol entering your engine is clean. Your motorcycle needs the correct amount of fuel to run and crank properly. As such, ensuring your filter is in good working order is an important aspect of your motorcycle maintenance. Fuel filters are constantly at work trapping debris and other impurities. Your filter also prevents moisture from entering the engine.

When and why do I need to change my fuel filter?

Over time your fuel filter will start to get dirty and clogged and will reduce the amount of fuel reaching your engine. If this is not changed it can lead to damages to your engine. Your fuel pump is the first part to be impacted as it needs to now work harder and pump more fuel that can lead the pump to fail. A dirty fuel filter means it is allowing contaminated fuel through the fuel injectors that could result in damaging and blocking the injectors.

What is the regular interval for changing fuel filters?

Most motorcycle manufactures will recommend a change at 40,000 kms or 3 years. It also depends on the condition of fuel in your city.

What are the signs of a bad fuel filter?

• Engine sputters or stops altogether
• Engine does not run/start
• Idling is rough
• Low power
• Poor mileage
• Motorcycle does not stay cranked

A sure shot test is to get a fuel pressure checked by a mechanic. The test checks for the pressure at the fuel rail after the fuel pump. For a motorcycle Normal pressure ranges between 30 – 60 PSI, if the pressure is lower than normal, a technician may first recommend replacing the fuel filter.

Fuel filters are a pain to get to, in older motorcycles the fuel filter may have been easy to replace as it was placed outside of the tank before the carburettors, on many modern vehicles, it is a little more challenging as the fuel filter is located inside the gas tank. It’s difficult to access your fuel filter inside to check its condition, and visual inspection doesn’t yield insights into the filter’s internal condition anyway. At this point you have the first option that is to replace it or look for advanced fuel filtration systems that will protect from fuel contamination before the stock fuel filter.

Companies like Guglatech are highly innovative and pioneers in the most advanced fuel filtration systems for motorcycles.

These types of filters are easy to fit and most models drop right inside the neck of your fuel tank and filter out contaminants such as dirt, sand, and water as you fill the tank. Having a prefilter at the neck of the tank with a material that gives high levels of filtration should help increase the service life of the internal filter and your injector should be protected from contamination blockages.