In-tank fuel filter -- how many hours w/o service?

For those of you with in-tank fuel pump/filter how many hours before they need attention?

Our X2(X1) has close to 500 hours on it and was curious if we're nearing a point where the fuel system needs service. Looked in service book but did not see any suggested hours for having things done.

I thought Andy Zarlengo on here went over 800 hours with his X5 w/o any issues a few years back. That may have been before the ethanol mix came into play though.

I'm on 760 hours on my 99 X-star and haven't changed it. I believe you would likely only change it if you have fuel pressure problems.

Maybe once it cools down a bit in Phoenix, I could add in a permanent fuel pressure guage somewhere inline to let me know if it starts to go south. Inline in the engine compartment would probably be the easiest and a quick check once a month would probably suffice.

According to some posts on the MC site, gas is only pulled through the filter when the tank is half full and below. Otherwise it bypasses the filter completely. If you don't run your gas tank empty every time I would imagine you would get more life. The downside is that once the filter clogs up, it will burn up the fuel pump, which I've heard is a $500 part.

Cool, thx. Our tank is usually never below half, so if filter is bypassed most of the time hopefully we should not have to worry about it for a while then.

I changed the fuel filter on my maristar, an easy change, but didn't solve the problem. I don't know if any of you have had this...idles rough and dies when getting off the throttle, only happens at altitude, the engine is fuel injected....

1boarder, you are correct a new fuel pump is $500 and you have to order it...

The whole "bypass when half full" sounds kinda fishy. I have never seen a pump that works like that. Reason #1 is that it would need to have same means of closing off once you went past 1/2 a tank or you'd be sucking air. Reason #2...why go through that extra design work when having just one intake at the bottom would work better anyhow and cost less to manufacture.
I *think* that the fuel filter/pump is an integrated unit but I haven't had a need to take mine out yet so I won't call Bravo Sierra just yet on the 1/2 full speculation but like I said it sounds fishy.

Also, I would bet that these are not directly built by MC themselves and one can likely get them cheaper from somewhere else. I know the fuel sender guage was a bit cheaper on the open market.

I'll pull the floor when I go out on thurs and see if I can find any identifying model numbers on it.

Tough one Joe, off hand I'd say check the fuel pressure with a guage and if that's ok then I'm thinking dirty injector(s) or bad connection to the injector(s). You can check the injector connections with a multimeter, now sure how to check their dirtyness other than cleaning them. Maybe Throttle Position Sensor check also? This is assuming that the spark plugs, wires, and distributor (if you have a distributor), are all ok.