1998 Honda Accord EX 4 cylinder V-tec engine?

A contaminated fuel filter will rob your overall engine performance and have the engine run rough. It can also make the engine struggle when it should not struggle like up a small hill. The fuel pump would just simply fail. Then you know that it is bad.

When my Jeep gets terrible gas mileage I look at the fuel filter. This happened to me recently where I was getting terrible mileage (worse than normal) and I had the fuel filter changed. It was contaminated with rust obviously from some rusty gas station tank.

It does not matter what kind of vehicle you have when the fuel pump is getting contaminated it needs changed.

I try to change mine out every 10-15,000 miles. I waited until it was 5 years since it was changed - way too long to wait.