When my friend asked me to help replace the fuel filter in his 1998 Toyota Corolla, I thought it was going to be an easy task. It turned out to be a little more involved than I thought. We found the filter on the driver's side in the engine compartment. It was on the lower firewall, mounted below brake master cylinder. That was the easy part.
Since we were opening the fuel system in the engine compartment, I suggested that we disconnect the battery. We also had to take off the air cleaner hose, the fuel filter shield and the charcoal canister. We put a pan under the filter and then used a back-up wrench and a line wrench and extension to slowly loosen the lower flare nut fitting. Once the fuel line pressure was relieved, we removed the banjo fitting and two metal gaskets. We discarded the old gaskets and put new ones in with the new filter. On reassembly, we tightened the banjo bolt and the flare nut to 22 foot-pounds.
