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Warning: Cheap fuel filters almost cost me a head gasket on I-80
Last month I was hauling a load through Nebraska when my '97 Cummins started losing power and smoking bad. Pulled over near Grand Island and swapped the fuel filter like I always do, but it kept acting up. Turns out the filter I grabbed from a discount truck stop was a knockoff with way less filtration media inside. I had water and crap getting past it and into the injection pump. Took me two days and $400 in parts to flush the whole system and replace the pump seals. Has anyone else run into these fake filters sold at smaller stops along the interstate?
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hollyscott5mo ago
Same thing happened to me in Iowa, those cheap filters are absolute junk.
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charlieh745mo ago
Hollyscott is right, they are total junk. I got burned by one of those at a no name stop in Wyoming last year. My truck started chugging like it had a cold, and I found a bunch of fine metal shavings in the bowl after. Had to drop the tank to clean it out. Never again.
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alex8205mo ago
Man, metal shavings in the bowl? That's scary. It makes you wonder what else is floating around in those off-brand filters that we don't see. @hollyscott's story about Iowa really drives home that this isn't just a one-off bad batch, it's how they're all made. You're basically paying for a metal tube full of junk that lets everything through.
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