Changing Fuel Filter On A 2001 Rx300

charles88 · January 25, 2011

I want to change the fuel filter on my 2001 Rx300 as there is no record of it being changed in the service history

Is it a big job and how do I go about it? and is it easy to break anything, like plastic pipe in the tank

I know it is in the tank!

Regards Charles

NJerseyDan · January 25, 2011

I've been thinking about doing it, because I've tried pretty much everything else to get rid of my rough idle. I have a Haynes Manual that gives you the steps. Heres pic from my alldata subscription. Hope it helps.

Filter is like 20$ and I'd get the strainer too, while you're in there. I think they're 20$ as well. Why are you changing this ?

code58 · January 26, 2011

I want to change the fuel filter on my 2001 Rx300 as there is no record of it being changed in the service history

Is it a big job and how do I go about it? and is it easy to break anything, like plastic pipe in the tank

I know it is in the tank!

Regards Charles

The reason there is no record of it being changed is they don't normally need to be changed in the life of an RX. It's not like an inline filter that has to filter every drop of fuel the engine uses, while sitting in a static state. The filter strainer in the tank is constantly "washed" by the sloshing of the fuel and therefore, unless you got some really bad rusty or contaminated fuel from some old tanks, it is not likely to ever clog up. My DIL's RX has almost 150k mi on it and has never had it changed and not one trace of problem with 87 oct. from many different stations that are not at all necessarily "Top Tier". If TT is unfamiliar to you, do a Google on it. Whereas the '97 Suburban that they ordered new quit at about 85k mi. as result of a completely clogged "INLINE" filter. It had to be towed and even had to replace the in- tank fuel pump because of the added strain on it. They both were fueled at the same stations for the most part. Lexus was wise in not putting an inline filter on. Hope this helps!