99 Fuel Filter, HELP!!!

Okay, I am doing some trouble shooting do to my car "bucking". It's a 99' 3 cyl 1.0 Haynes manual shows a big round filter by the fuel tank, the auto store showed it was a big round filter by the fuel tank, I get down on the ground crawl under, and where the big round filter should be, I see nothing. I see the holes that a bracket would have screwed in, but no bracket.

Now further down (only a couple inches over) I see the inlet and outlet lines going to a flat square type thing. I'm thinking maybe someone did a custom job..... and that's the fuel filter.... I see no markings on it though.

Note: You don't get a bracket when you buy the filter, so I can't just disconnect and set it all up on the new filter, anyone got any suggestions?

I hope I don't have to fork out a bunch of money or some sh!t.

new twist....grrr

I read now that a 99' has the fuel filter on the inside of the gas tank, that "doesn't need to be changed perodicaly" (Haynes manual)... This is new to me I thought fuel filter's were suppose to be changed every 15000km and this to me is saying it never needs to be changed??? PLus as I said, the parts book at my auto store listed this filter for 95-00 cars.

Someone please chime in here and help me out...

I'm not sure, but I think the filters are nearly all the same.

Possibly someone suspected the fuel pump went bad and installed a universal fuel pump near where the filter should be. Many of the universal external pumps are square. Any wires coming out of it?

The internal filter is commonly known as a 'sock' and it is there for large particles and should not normally clog. The car should still have the other filter.