ConceptS14

My mom has a '00 Civic LX and over the summer I was proceeding with a minor tune up of her car. The last thing I did was the fuel filter because I was waiting for it in the mail. My friend ordered it for me while he was ordering parts for his car.
Anyway, we swapped out the fuel filter and I got in the car to start it up. The car wouldn't start. We noticed that fuel was leaking from the bottom side of the fuel filter. My first thought was that I didn't tighten it enough. My friend and I attempted to tighten it, but was only able to get a small rotation out of the nut. Attempted to start the motor again, this time it started, but fuel was just streaming out of the bottom.
It was my first time dealing with a Honda. I own a 240SX and swapping fuel filters is a breeze, no tools needed at all. It was late at night so I decided to leave the Civic at my friend's place and try again the next day. I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out what the problem was. Was I missing a washer? Did I bend something out of shape?
I went back the next day and I pulled out the new filter and did a close comparison of the new and old filters. Turns out that the bottom nut part (circled in red) of the new filter is about 2-2.5mm LONGER than the original filter. The fuel line wasn't able to mate with the surface of the fuel filter and that was the reason for the massive spillage.

VRD^sam

JB Weld

fasthatchb18c1

Did you use any Teflon tape around the threads of the fuel line? I kind of had the same problem( with the leaking) and Teflon stopped it/

ConceptS14

thougth about using the tape. but since it is my mom's car and not mine, i didn't feel comfortable doing that. i just threw the original fuel filter back on and returned the new one.

fasthatchb18c1

Next time get an OEM one and it will be fine. When it comes to things like that its just worth the extra money.