Fuel Filter on 49cc

[Wrench]

I will sharpie the month and year I put a filter on most of my small engines. The filter element itself can sometimes degrade with age/time and become the problem. 2 years is a good time frame for replacement regardless of miles ridden just because, as you mentioned, the plastic starts to degrade.

Yes, the filter my Whizzer came with had a paper/foam filter element in it and it clogged up my carb.
Yeah I probably didn't change it soon enough but that's when I switched to clear Pancake filters with just a fine metal screen

I also made a maintenance schedule and wrote everything down in a log because
I soon discovered a M/B is 10x more maintenance than a M/C

 

[Nikoliki]

Yep, Pancake filters 10 for $10 change it ever year or 2 years if ya don't ride much

If ya forgot when the filter was last changed, the clear Pancake filter will get cloudy after a about 2 years
If it's no longer see thru ya know it's old and time to change the filter

But it's easy to keep a maintenance log

Note: I bought my batch of 10 pancake filters 5 years ago so today in this economy 10 pancake filters is probably $15 or $20

Oh boy I'm glad they weren't that much! The red ones I got were ten for $7.69 on Amazon. Seems like one thing inflation has left alone so far.

 

[Sidewinder Jerry]

I even went as far as installing an inline valve since my filter is in the tank. I carry a pre-tuned carburetor as a spare. I've always changed the fuel filter annually.