Aren't they designed to be in contact with fuel all the time though, they're full of it after all...? And do cars with fuel injection, ie all of them, not run high pressure systems too?

Thanks for the advice....looks like it's a trip to the dealers then. I can get away with £13.50 out of this weeks food money...her indoors won't notice it that way:D

yes, they are, but for some reason they tend to get brittle when submerged in petrol. the plastic filters i've seen are for carburetted engines, i've not seen an efi filter made of plastic, ( doesn't mean they don't make them though) all the ones i've seen are alloy bodied.