I was traveling in new jersey last week and was just starting the drive home when the car sputtered and died (2005 A4 1.8T Q 6M) . Used Audi roadside assistance to get the car towed to the nearby dealer- they took a long time tim diagnose the problem but concluded that the fuel pump just died! Funny thing is, there was no check engine light or any other code! Strange....anyway, hes supposed to fix it today under the extended warranty (certified preowned car...) but recommended that i change the fuel filter at the same time- costs about $185 out of my pocket-should I get this done? And any ideas on why the fuel pump just gave out? Could it be crud in the gas or something? The car has been super reliable for teh last 3 years....

 

$185 sounds kind of expensive for changing out a $30-50 part, especially since it's a "while you're in there" situation, but it would be good to have a fresh, clean one in there. If the filter is clogged, it puts extra stress on the pump. It's possible that's what caused the pump to fail, and you certainly wouldn't want to wear out your new pump any faster than you have to.

 

The filter is usually the cause of the pump going out. It is probably clogged and needs to be changed at the same time. Looks like they are charging for the filter and 1 hour labor. See if they can cut the labor in half because its not a difficult job.

 

Yeah, apparently the fuel filter was filthy...wonder if there was some crud in the gas?? I always use 93 octane shell or BP gas, so maybe it just happened over time.
They said the clogged filter essentially caused the fuel pump to fail- is there a way I could clean out any debris in the tank somehow? When they changed the fuel pump, they had to drain the gas out but said it looked fine...
Anyway, changed both (pump under warranty, fuel filter out of pocket)....runs fine now but I'm still nervous about crud in the tank.

 

Except the fuel filter is under the car and the fuel pump is under the rear seat..... So the "while your there" doesn't apply.

And for the record... "While your there" doesn't apply at all when stacking Customer pay time on to Warranty. ONLY Customer pay on Customer pay.

The filter is more like 80.00 and generally charge 1.0 hour to replace.

This model A4 fuel pump failure is very very common anywhere 50,000 to 100,000 miles.

As for the original post. No you don't need to replace the filter with the pump. It is in fact a strong recommendation because the filter failure is also very common in this A4