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Fuel filter - have you changed it out yet?

34K views 88 replies 42 participants last post by  djh3 
#1 ·
Per maintenance schedule: fuel filter replacement @ 30,000 miles. I have reviewed the directions. This is a pain in the ***: "The fuel filter is attached to the electric fuel pump located inside the fuel tank. No periodic fuel filter maintenance is required, however, the fuel filter should be replaced @ 30,000. Replace all mounting screws and pump seal O-ring any time pump is removed for service or fuel filter maintenance." Has any one discovered a way to circumvent and install a fuel filter on the outside, so that we can easily get to the fuel filter? Is there any where else other than Victory to purchase mounting screws, seal O-ring and fuel filter? I apppreciate any and all suggestions.
 
#2 ·
There will be quiet a few that don't agree with me. I would not change it till you have 75 thousand on the bike. I would not change the belt till you have 100 thousand miles on it. Maybe at 60 thousand you might need a rear pulley. Victory has some maintenance way to early. Like the belt, guys are getting 100 thousand plus out of them. Fork oil and brake fluid are other ones. Yes maybe if you live in drastic climate weather change areas you should do some of this. If we could afford to have our brake fluid and fork oils analyzed we might learn the real truth to how long fluids last. No I would not change your filter specially if you go to good gas stations that fuel there tanks often.
 
#3 ·
vision_nut, My experience with motorcycles, I have to agree with you. I perform all required maintenance on all my vehicles. My 2006 Yamaha Road Star has 97,000 miles, my 2011 Victory Cross Country has 27,000 miles at this time. I ride 120 miles round trip every day, no matter what the weather is. Will try to find a way to circumvent the inside gas tank fuel filter and replace it with an outside inline fuel filter, for ease of maintenance. Hoping that Kevin X, Dave Koehmstedt, Lloyd Greer or some other expert will chime in and give us some insight on this issue. If anyone knows how to contact the above and ask this question, I will appreciate it. Stay safe!!
 
#4 ·
For those intersted. Cost break down of parts to replace the fuel filter: Seal, Fuel: 1 each @ $22.04 ASM., Filter, Fuel: 1 each @ $82.35 Screw: 10 each @ $0.82 This does not include labor if you so choose to take your bike in for service.
 
#5 ·
Never seen a in line fuel filter for and EFI not even in cars. There is to much pressure in the line. I have known other riders including myself that have over 80 thousand on there bikes and have never changed the fuel filter. Like I said if you buy your gas from a station that does volume I would think they have clean gas. Were not living back in the thirty's and forty's when they need to do it.
 
#7 ·
vision_nut, I do purchase my fuel from "Top Tier" gas stations. The beginning of the week, I filled up at a Shell station that I had been using for years without issue until the next day when going to work and coming to a red signal light the motor started running rough and died. I got it started and revved the motor a little to keep it running till I ran all the fuel out. Filled up at another station and have not had a problem since. This is the reason I started researching the fuel filter issue. racky, Now that is the kind of information I am looking for. I will contact the vic shop and discuss this with them. Thank you and have good and safe weekend!
 
#8 ·
I just took my bike into the local Victory dealership for the 25,000 mile tuneup/checkup. After I returned home I received a call from the dealership saying what a pain it would be to change out the fuel filter. The dealership told me that they contacted a Victory technician and they recommended to not replace the fuel filter unless I was having issues (which I am not). I told them to not replace the filter and after reading other posts on this forum I am glad I did. Apparently very few people are having a need to replace the fuel filter, which is a good thing.
 
#9 ·


I have a 2010 Cross Country that I picked up used in Atlanta in February. Bike had 37K miles on it at that time and up until a little over a month ago had no fuel or operation issues with the bike. I only ran into issues after I took the bike to The Vic Shop in Iowa to have Lloyd's cam's, timing gear, air filter, power commander 5 and Atom Bomb mufflers installed and dyno'd.

I rode the bike there and back about 400 miles each way..

When I first noticed some issues was on the trip home and the bike would momentarily cut out loosing power. My initial thought was that maybe I had gotten some bad gas some place. After getting back to Illinois and having run about 3-4 tanks of fuel thru the bike it seemed to be running better.

Since I had just had the bike tuned at The Vic Shop I contacted Rylan there to share what was going on with the bike. He suggested changing the fuel filter out and had mentioned recently changing one out on another CC with fewer miles on it and it resolved that bikes issues.

Honestly I was a bit reluctant and skeptical of it being a fuel filter issue since the problem seemed to have cleared up.. Even so I decided to order a replacement filter and gasket. Both were a bit expensive as others have commented. Any way.. I figured at least I'd have them should the bike act up again. FYI - my local dealer didn't stock the filter and even questioned why I wanted to replace it stating they had never replaced a filter on a Cross bike as of yet.

A couple of weeks ago I rode the bike back to Iowa to the AVR rally and no problems till the return trip back home when the bike began pinging in top gear going into a head wind at around 65-70. The bike had pinged before breifly after the tuning and Rylan at The Vic Shop said it might and if it did to contact him to walk me thru tweaking the timing.

So... back in Illinois and a few tanks of fuel later and the bike is running great again.. I contacted Rylan about it again and pondered if the octane difference in fuel in Iowa and alcohol content might be playing into my issues.. Premium fuel where I wasin Iowa was 91 octane and back here in Illinois it's 93 octane.

Long story short.. a week after being back.. I decided I'd had enough and ran the bike low on fuel in prep to replace the fuel filter.

Replacing the fuel filter is really a breeze.. I know it was a bit intimidating to me at first but seriously.. run the bike low on fuel.. take the seat off the bike (two bolts near the back of the tank). Take the two bolts out of the back of the tank holding it in place along with disconnecting the ground wire at the back of the tank and pull the tank back slightly lifting it up and squeeze the blue tabs on the fuel line under the tank to release it and carefully slide the tank off the bike and flip it upside down on a blnket etc so as not to scratch it. The fuel pump/filter access is on the bottom and extreemly easy to get at. Only suggestion is be very careful when reinstalling fuel pump/filter to make sure you torque it down to spec in the sequence in the service manual.

Now.. back to after the filter change.

To my surprise.. just changing the filter I immediately noticed a ease in the bike starting.. acceleration and power were better and now no matter what I do or how hard I try.. I can not make the bike ping even in 100+ degree temps and lugging the bike in top gear from 50 MPH on up..

When I bought the bike it had 37K miles on it.. it now has 50K miles on it and about 4K miles of it with the Lloyd tunning stuff on it etc. I do pull a trailer behind the bike at times and the trip I was concerned about taking to California this fall is no longer a concern that the pinging issue is resolved.

Below is a picture of the new and old fuel filters for my Cross Country. It's pretty clear which is new and old. I personally only run Shell or BP premium fuel thru my bikes. I'm not sure if the the old filter looks the way it does from discoloration from fuel.. or if its from dirt.

Anyway.. hope my feedback helps some of you others that are considering replacing fuel filters. It's really not that hard to do if you have basic tools.. My local dealer was going to charge me about $200 in labor saying it would take them a couple of hours to do. It doesn't take that long at all and if you have everything laid out and ready can do it in under an hour easily. Personally I prefer to keep my $$$ and be more aware of how the bike is put together etc so I can do at least routine maintenance.

I think I have some other pic's of the fuel pump and bottom of the tank if any of you want to see more of what it looks like. Basically the fuel pump is attached to a flat plate that attaches to the bottom of the fuel tank near the back of the tank.

 
#11 ·

If you value your life and you ever have your motor cutting out when you have less than 1/2 fuel in your tank, you should possily consider changing the filter seriously...!!!!!

My XC was cutting out and Rylan suggested the fuel filter change when I visited him for a fork oil change. I purposely ran my tank low approaching the Vic Shop...... and it cut out at least 4 times. (not something you want to happen with an 18 wheeler on your tail).

The filter was changed (it was visibly very dirty like the pic above) and I again rode the bike with lower fuel quantity and could not get it to "cut out" and haven't had it duplicate since in over 6k miles.

It only takes ONE tank of contaminated fuel (even slightly) to mess up this filter.

In my case, the engine would completely cut out..... then surge andrun fine as the electric pump was still getting fuel slowly thru the dirty filter. When the tank was at a higher level, I suspect the "head" pressure of the gas volume pushed more fuel into the filterso it had adequate supply,especially when ridden at steady RPM.

The "cutting out" usually happened during deceleration ordownshifting..... and always when the tank level wasbelow 1/2fuel. It sometimes would occur during acceleration, especially at lower fuel levels. It was not verycomforting feelingwhen trying to clear traffic, etc.
 
#12 ·

here in Mn. we have city pages and they will rate gas station on quality of there gas. I think they get there finding from the state cause I know the state check all stations at random. So if you have a city pages check them out. Here Quick Trip has the best gas. Never do a Holifay or Supper America stations.
 
#13 ·

TechyOne said:
I have a 2010 Cross Country that I picked up used in Atlanta in February. Bike had 37K miles on it at that time and up until a little over a month ago had no fuel or operation issues with the bike. I only ran into issues after I took the bike to The Vic Shop in Iowa to have Lloyd's cam's, timing gear, air filter, power commander 5 and Atom Bomb mufflers installed and dyno'd.

I rode the bike there and back about 400 miles each way..

When I first noticed some issues was on the trip home and the bike would momentarily cut out loosing power. My initial thought was that maybe I had gotten some bad gas some place. After getting back to Illinois and having run about 3-4 tanks of fuel thru the bike it seemed to be running better.

Since I had just had the bike tuned at The Vic Shop I contacted Rylan there to share what was going on with the bike. He suggested changing the fuel filter out and had mentioned recently changing one out on another CC with fewer miles on it and it resolved that bikes issues.

Honestly I was a bit reluctant and skeptical of it being a fuel filter issue since the problem seemed to have cleared up.. Even so I decided to order a replacement filter and gasket. Both were a bit expensive as others have commented. Any way.. I figured at least I'd have them should the bike act up again. FYI - my local dealer didn't stock the filter and even questioned why I wanted to replace it stating they had never replaced a filter on a Cross bike as of yet.

A couple of weeks ago I rode the bike back to Iowa to the AVR rally and no problems till the return trip back home when the bike began pinging in top gear going into a head wind at around 65-70. The bike had pinged before breifly after the tuning and Rylan at The Vic Shop said it might and if it did to contact him to walk me thru tweaking the timing.

So... back in Illinois and a few tanks of fuel later and the bike is running great again.. I contacted Rylan about it again and pondered if the octane difference in fuel in Iowa and alcohol content might be playing into my issues.. Premium fuel where I wasin Iowa was 91 octane and back here in Illinois it's 93 octane.

Long story short.. a week after being back.. I decided I'd had enough and ran the bike low on fuel in prep to replace the fuel filter.

Replacing the fuel filter is really a breeze.. I know it was a bit intimidating to me at first but seriously.. run the bike low on fuel.. take the seat off the bike (two bolts near the back of the tank). Take the two bolts out of the back of the tank holding it in place along with disconnecting the ground wire at the back of the tank and pull the tank back slightly lifting it up and squeeze the blue tabs on the fuel line under the tank to release it and carefully slide the tank off the bike and flip it upside down on a blnket etc so as not to scratch it. The fuel pump/filter access is on the bottom and extreemly easy to get at. Only suggestion is be very careful when reinstalling fuel pump/filter to make sure you torque it down to spec in the sequence in the service manual.

Now.. back to after the filter change.

To my surprise.. just changing the filter I immediately noticed a ease in the bike starting.. acceleration and power were better and now no matter what I do or how hard I try.. I can not make the bike ping even in 100+ degree temps and lugging the bike in top gear from 50 MPH on up..

When I bought the bike it had 37K miles on it.. it now has 50K miles on it and about 4K miles of it with the Lloyd tunning stuff on it etc. I do pull a trailer behind the bike at times and the trip I was concerned about taking to California this fall is no longer a concern that the pinging issue is resolved.

Below is a picture of the new and old fuel filters for my Cross Country. It's pretty clear which is new and old. I personally only run Shell or BP premium fuel thru my bikes. I'm not sure if the the old filter looks the way it does from discoloration from fuel.. or if its from dirt.

Anyway.. hope my feedback helps some of you others that are considering replacing fuel filters. It's really not that hard to do if you have basic tools.. My local dealer was going to charge me about $200 in labor saying it would take them a couple of hours to do. It doesn't take that long at all and if you have everything laid out and ready can do it in under an hour easily. Personally I prefer to keep my $$$ and be more aware of how the bike is put together etc so I can do at least routine maintenance.

I think I have some other pic's of the fuel pump and bottom of the tank if any of you want to see more of what it looks like. Basically the fuel pump is attached to a flat plate that attaches to the bottom of the fuel tank near the back of the tank.

yes i would be interested in seeing the other pix
 
#14 ·

TechyOne's story is nearly identical to mine. My 2010 XC started cutting out under hard acceleration shortly after doing a stage 1 upgrade. TechyOne's started after his performance upgrade. Must be related to putting higher demands on the fuel system. I thought it had something to do with the addition of the PCV and AT,but realized the symptomsarethesame aswhen I've run out of fuel. The bike runs perfectly otherwise. And mine pings a little in 6th against a head wind likeTechyOne,but no other time. My XC has only 10K miles, butI've heard of fuel problems at all mileages. Going to replace the fuel filter ASAP! I took the fuel tank off to install Lloyd's air filter, and it's not that big of a deal. Hope this solves my problem. And hope my dealer has one in stock. Sounds unlikely.
 
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#15 ·

vision_nut said:
Never seen a in line fuel filter for and EFI not even in cars. There is to much pressure in the line. I have known other riders including myself that have over 80 thousand on there bikes and have never changed the fuel filter. Like I said if you buy your gas from a station that does volume I would think they have clean gas. Were not living back in the thirty's and forty's when they need to do it.
the old days of a filter in front of the carb are gone. Very few exceptions to the fuel filter being part of the pump assembly inside the fuel tank. the biggest source for contaminated gas is the age of the storage tanks. The older tanks without the new liners breakdown and contaminate the fuel.
 
#17 ·

I priced the parts for changing the fuel filter at Parkland Sled and ATV here in Gasoline Alley, Red Deer AB. The oring for the plate is $31 and the new updated filter which is now called a fuel pump sender is listed at $296 Canadian. Kind of sounds like gouging to me for what is actually supplied. One thing though my cross country has 27000 kms on it and they say it isn"t needed until 50000 kms. Will have to look around for a better price before I need one.
 
#18 ·

checked part numbers on vics oem site and the filter actually lists at $105 Candadian. The part she previously quoted me for was the fuel pump sending unit as well and that was actually $396 not $296 like I thought. Much better than I was previously told.
 
#19 ·

The OP wanted to know if there is a way to bypass the filter in the tank and add an external filter somewhere. After reading all the other posts and seeing the dirty tank filter I would like to know if you can bypass it and add an external one also. One tank of contaminated fuel in some one-horse town in the middle of nowhere a thousand miles from home can ruin your day or WEEK. Having the ability to change a filter in a matter of minutes gives you a little more peace of mind.
 
#20 ·
A couple of things came to mind. 1) not replacing the fuel filter is an excellent way to leave yourself stranded when it either plugs up to the point it won't run, or smokes the fuel pump from the extra strain. 2). Victory is pretty good about their maintence schedule. Generally when you skip a filter or a fluid change the bike runs fine until something more expensive breaks. That "something expensive" was usually protected by a routine maintence item like a filter or a fluid. 3). The fuel filter protects the pump. The pump is inside the tank. Therefore an external filter would be (half) pointless. 4) at my shop, the filter is in stock and replacement is about $75. About $170 p&l every 30K miles to keep you on the road doesn't seem outrageous to me.
 
#21 ·
Vic Builder

I have just priced out the filter $105, screws $11 and new seal $40. That is in Cdn dollars, expensive. But when you replace filter do you also replace screw and seal???? just asking, Maybe the seal makes sense but the screws???
 
#22 ·
Vic Builder

I have just priced out the filter $105, screws $11 and new seal $40. That is in Cdn dollars, expensive. But when you replace filter do you also replace screw and seal???? just asking, Maybe the seal makes sense but the screws???
I've seen other repair videos where the author notes that Vic suggests fastener replacement. As I recall, it's because they want to ensure that the proper thread locker is on the fasteners before we bolt our beasts back together.
 
#24 ·
While an "external" filter is not an option...snow mobiles and quads use a fuel "sock" that hangs inside the fuel inlet to help keep contaminants from getting into the fuel tank itself. This idea could be modded to use on a victory to help extend the life of the real expensive filter...a "pre-filter" if you will.
 
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#26 ·
Sgtfixit,
Great idea "fuel filter sock". Went and researched, found that there are several models and manufactures.
Would you know what would work on our Victories, where to purchase, etc...?
BTW: I own a 2011 Cross Country.
Any and all assistance on this matter would be appreciated.

Vic Builder,
Thought I read that you sell the filter? But went to your site and it is for 2008 and older models? Is that correct? Thanks!
 
#28 ·
2013 Victory CROSS COUNTRY/TOURING ALL OPTIONS (V13DW36/TW/KW/ZW) Fuel System, Fuel Tank All Options | PartsPitstop.com

Click the text above, the fuel filter is 67.75 from them.

Also be careful about eyeballing the color of the filter as that is not a true indicator of life of the filter. Some gas brands use a dye in their fuel and a pure white filter is not going to stay white even in fuel that is not using a dye. I remember the old Amoco fuel did not have any dyes and they used to have a glass eye in their fuel nozzles so you could see the clear fuel. Amoco used to advertise they did not put dyes in their fuel.

I don't know if you remember the old Sunoco fuels but they had a blend they dyed blue.
 
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