Hidden Fuel Filter

[cleverdick]

Has anyone on here experienced a clogged sender unit filter? I have (but not on a Lexus I hasten to add) and it was scary - on the motorway of all places! In this instance, the filter literally caved in and blocked the pipe, causing my car to stall during an overtaking manouvre.

So what has this to do with LS400s? Well, in addition to the external filter which we all know about, there's one inside the tank too - which obviously does NOT get changed as a matter of course. So eventually, this filter will clog, with potentially disastrous results. Why do manufacturers do this? What's the point of a replaceable external filter if there's one in the tank that will inevitably clog first, but that you can't get to?

More to the point, has anyone had theirs changed, and how easy was it to do?

(In some ways, I wish I hadn't bought the Lexus manual, because I'd still be in ignorant bliss thinking that the external filter was the only one.) My LS400 has done about 115k miles, and the one on my Granada clogged at around 100k. Difference is, Toyota at least mention this filter in the dealer's manual, whereas Ford do not, causing many cars to be scrapped because nobody can find the fault.

Comments?