I have seen many responses to hesitation issues suggesting to change the fuel pump, but never a reply saying that helped. I have seen many more where people said they had changed the fuel filter, among other things, to fix a fuel problem, but were still stumped. I even changed one myself thinking it could be causing a problem, but that wasn't it.

I suspect that fuel filters are rather unnnecessary in modern cars. In the days when there were steel gas tanks rusting on the inside and people were driving on dirt road with fuel systems that weren't all sealed up like they are today, then I suppose the filters did a good job. Now I think they are just cheap insurance but they encounter almost nothing that gets past the fuel sock in the tank.

Why change it then? If it is nasty looking on the outside and probably original to the car, like the one on my 1990 740, then change it when it's convenient for you or you might wind up like me. I got gas smell whenever I parked the car in the garage. Spent a lot of time checking all the connections at the top of the tank. (I was in there last year replacing the Regina pump and figured I left one loose.) Checked the ones under the hood too. Finally I looked under the car and discovered that the filter had rusted through from the outside and had been seeping for a long time.

It's a nasty, dirty job if leaking gas has turned all the undercoating to black goo. So if you your car has lived in the rust belt, I suggest you change yours on your own schedule and without the goo . The filter is only $10.
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St. paul, MN. 740 Regina x 2 and '95 944. Several past 200-700.