How to Replace Fuel Filter 1997-2006 BMW 325 Xi

What's up guys? I'm Andy from 1A Auto. In this video I'm going to show you how to replace the fuel filter on this 2001 BMW 325 XI. If you need this part or other parts for your vehicle, click the link in the description. Head over to 1AAuto.com.

Before I remove the fuel filter, I like to relieve the pressure from the fuel system, because I don't want to get sprayed with fuel in the face. So I'm going to remove this cover under the hood. There's a 10 millimeter bolt here and right there. Sometimes you might have a cover over this, just take a small pocket screwdriver and take that cover off, remove these bolts. That one, and get under here. This one as well. Just use a 10 millimeter socket and a ratchet.

Get those loose. Just slide this cover up, out of the way. And there's a fuel fitting right there. So unscrew this, just with your hands. And there's a Schrader valve in there, what I do is just take a rag and a screwdriver over the Schrader valve, and just push down. The rag will catch the fuel and that's going to relieve the pressure. So then when you take the fuel filter off, it's not going to spray in your face. Just reinstall the cover, the cap. Snug that up. Put this cover back on. Ten millimeter socket and a ratchet, tighten these down. It's just one step, it makes it a little bit easier for changing the fuel filter.

So underneath the vehicle, there should be a shield right here. This vehicle doesn't have it. There should be some fasteners right here, here, right here, right here, and two back there. So you're going to want to remove that. If the front shield is in your way, you're going to want to remove that as well. There's other fasteners in the front of the vehicle, so take those off and we can access this right here. Now this is the cover that's going to cover the fuel filter. So I'm going to take an eight millimeter socket and take this screw out. Just going to use a hammer. Tap it. It's a little bit rusty.

Then loosen this up. Take that down. There's two fasteners right here. Just use the eight millimeter socket extension and just tap those. Take the ratchet, take these off. There we go. Loosen his one up as well. I'm going to just hold the shield with my other hand. Alright, take that one off. You can grab the shield, slide it out, pull it down. Alright, I need to remove these clamps. Now these clamps are a onetime use only. They're torqued down with a special socket that you're not going to be able to get. So you can loosen them up with a straight blade screwdriver, but you're not going to be able to tighten them, so you have to replace those clamps.

So, We'll loosen these up. Alright, I'll take the screwdriver, straight blade screwdriver, and just pop this hose off right here. This is for the fuel pressure regulator, it's built into the filter. That just pops off, there's no clamp on that one. Alright, and then I'm just going to try to loosen up these hoses a little bit and I'm going to take them off. Keep in mind that this center hose right here is the blue one right there, and the black one goes to the outer one. So he's going to want to do the same with the new fuel filter.

I'm going to take a right angle pick and just get underneath the fuel lines. Make sure you have a drain bucket underneath, because you are going to lose a little bit of fuel. I do have these hose pliers. These might help a little bit, you just grab and just twist a little bit. If you have these, these might help you. If not, you could use some needle nose pliers. Just be careful, don't pinch it too tight. Just taking a screwdriver, trying to loosen this up a little. I just want it to move. I don't need to take the hose completely off a little bit, and just it'll be easier to try to pry now while the filter's still attached with the bracket.

And that one's pretty loose, so that's good. Just move on to the other ones. Okay. With those loose like that, the front one loose, then I can take this bracket off. Now this nut is pretty rusty. This happens to be a 10 millimeter socket. I'm going to use an extension. Because it's so rusty, it may have been a different size at one time. Just give it a tap with a hammer. Then take a ratchet, loosen this up. I'm just going to spray a little rust penetrant on there. Let that soak for a minute.

All right. So take that off. Take my straight screwdriver, pull this down. Slide this down. This is going to come off this bracket. Just slides in like that. Then with drain bucket, just take this off over here. Pop these lines off. It's a good idea to wear safety glasses when you're doing this, just so if any fuel sprays, you won't get it in your eyes. A little bit of spray. There we go. Drain that in the bucket. Move this over. Then twist this one off over here.

All right, so I'm going to take these clamps off, because I'm not reusing them, and put new ones on. Just smaller worm clamps, small worm clamps. Same over here, there, and right there. If these hoses don't look so good, you can replace those hoses. Then we'll take the new filter. Line this one up first. This is the black one that went to that further away fitting, and then the blue one went to the middle. Just like that. And then you can get this front fitting on. Just like that. Put this bracket on first. Get that lined up. Get those feet lined up. So I am going to replace the nut, going to use a 10 millimeter socket. Tighten this down. I'll just snug it up. That's good.

Now I'll take a straight blade screwdriver and tighten down these hose clamps. Right, so all those hose clamps are snugged up. Now we can put on this vacuum line that goes to the regulator. Slide that into position, just like that. At this point, I want to prime the system. There's going to be air in the fuel lines. So what I'm going to do is turn the key on, let it sit for 10 seconds. You should be able to hear the fuel pump kick on. Shut it off, turn it back on for a couple of seconds, and shut it off. I'll do that three times, and then I'll try to start it.

I can check around, and see if there's any leaks at this point. If there's no leaks, you're good to start it. I'll start it. It starts right up. Let it run for a second. And then I'll shut it off and I'll check for leaks. So we checked it out. We don't have any leaks. So now we can reinstall the cover. Cover lined up here. Right here. This covers pretty bad. It'd be a good idea to replace this cover, but we're just going to reuse it. Put the bolts right here, and then there's these two nuts, there going to go over here.

Then I'll take a eight millimeter socket, extension, and ratchet. Snug these up. At this point, if you have the underbody cover that goes right here, you're going to want to put that on and secure those fasteners in the correct locations. This vehicle does not have it.

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