Anyone chnaged the fuel filter yet? It's due at 15k so I'm wondering how difficult it is to do...

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On my '00, there is no maintenance requirement to change the fuel filter, unless it "becomes clogged."

Is the '01 schedule different?

I certainly would expect it to last at least 60k miles.

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I've done it. My 2000 X's maintenance book makes no mention of changing the fuel filter that I could find but xterraparts.com shows 15,000 miles (for both the '00 and '01) which seems WAY early but I did mine anyways at about 34K.
It's fairly straight forward and not too difficult to do. The filter is located just forward of the gas tank. It would be easiest under the following conditions: (1) jack up the back-passenger end a couple-few inches and/or (2) remove passenger side step rail. I did neither but it still took only about 45 minutes. You should have a couple good fuel line clamps (yes, they have clamps just for this purpose) for (A)keeping gas from leaking out of the gas tank when old filter is removed (make sure you clamp the supply-side hose) and (B) providing a source of leverage for the removal of the hoses from old filter (this can be a real sum-b!tch and will likely account for about 75 percent of the time it takes to do the whole job!).
Hope this is helpful.


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it's a good idea to get in the habit of changing your fuel filter every 10,000 to 15.000 miles. preventive maintenance go's along way!

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Especially if you are going off road alot. All that bouncing around probably stirs up a lot of crap off the bottom of the tank. Also, if you run your tank until the gas light comes on, it would be a good idea to change the filter.

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Normal driving stirs up the crap in the bottom of your tank. And remember, the fuel pump draws from the bottom in the first place. You don't put your straw 1" into the cup when you're drinking do you?

Brent