I had an interesting experience this weekend that I thought I should share with the group.

My 911 was in the shop ( a very reputable local shop) for some routine maintenance....including replacing the fuel filter. I picked the car up on Friday, drove it home, and then went for a nice long drive Saturday am. It ran great.....all was good.

Sunday am, I was about to take it out for another long drive. After starting it, I noticed I had left my sunglasse on the workbench, so I got out (motor still running) retrieved the glasses, and started back toward the car. As I approached the car, I noticed a strong fuel smell, and then noticed something dripping from the rear of the car. I pulled the lid release, and then lifted the engine cover. Much to my surprise, there was a high pressure stream of fuel spraying from the fuel filter - right where it meets the fuel console. I shut the engine off, and checked the filter for snugness. I was able to turn it by hand about 1/8 a turn. Thinking I had fixed the problem, I fired it up again, however it was still spraying fuel. After shutting it down again, I first removed the lower hose, and then unscrewed the fuel filter. When I pulled the filter out, amazingly, the black rubber gasket was shredded into about 20 various sized pieces, and scattered around the top of the filter

I brought the filter along with the shredded gasket back to the shop today, and told them what had happened. They were quite puzzled and appologetic, and exchanged the filter. They said they've gotten several filters from this paricular vendor and have not any problems with them. The filter comes in a white box, with a sticker on the top that says "Fuel Filter" "Made in Germany" "1 pc" "901 110 909 10"

This evening, before putting the replacement filter on, I inspected the mating surface of the console (using a mirror) and it's smooth and clean with no evidence of rust, burrs, etc that could have damaged the gasket on the first filter. After installing the new filter, I started the engine, and was happy to find no further evidence of leaking.

Although I'm puzzled as to what may have caused the problem with the first filter's gasket, I'm also relieved that I caught the problem when I did, and didn't experience any serious drama like fire!

Maybe it was all just a fluke, but I thought it would be helpful to give everyone the heads up.