4RnrRick

Well I'm new to deisels and I'm trying to get into the habit of getting in and turning the key and waiting for the "wait to start" light to go out before I crank it over. But twice now I've jumped in and fired it up only to see the "water in fuel" light stay on. One time it was pouring down rain and I just let is idle for say 10 seconds and it went off. the other time I shut it down and drained the fuel filter.

BTW - I've got a fuel filter and its getting installed tonight.

So how bad is it on the motor to be running with this light on? will it damage something in seconds? minutes? etc...

John Faughn

!st , need to find out the why's , mine will lite after I pressure wash the eng. , then after a day or two , it drys out , lite does not come on .
When you go to change fuel filter , drain into a glass container , then let settle , so that you can look to see if there is more than just diesel in there , if looks good than just getting wet from rain .
If other stuff in the glass than need to clean tank out , and not get fuel where that came from , most will go out of there way to get fuel from truck stops , better % of getting a good tank of fuel from the truck stops .
If there was stuff in tank , run some diesel fuel injection cleaner through , also get from truck stop , stanadyne , howes meaner cleaner , power service , use these every tank full , unless the place your getting fuel from has them added already .

woodrat

I actually did have some water in fuel a few months back, and I headed out on a road trip like that. When the WIF light would come on, I would find the next safe place to pull over, open the valve on the bottom of the filter and let a 1/4 cup or so of wet fuel out and head out again. When I started out the light was coming on in less than 20 miles. After a few hundred miles it was coming on about every 100 miles or so and eventually I got it all out. No biggie.

4RnrRick

Well I know my drain is screwed up! See I can only get an ounce of fuel out of the drain... I KNOW its all plugged up with crap or something (the filter and/or the drain mechanism).

My plan is to thoroughly clean it out and make sure it works properly. I haven't been able to get the fuel filter off yet because its on there TIGHT! Just last night I finally got myself one of those sticky rubber strap oil filter wrenches so I know I can remove it. Obviously I will know more on that problem once I get it removed. But thats a different issue.

As for my previous comment about it raining - I was only mentioning that because I really didn't want to get out in the rain (not just a little sprinkle - I mean raining cats and dogs type rain) to fiddle with the plugged up fuel drain. And after it ran for another 10 seconds, the light went off. Like I said, I will figure out that issue once I get that current fuel filter off.

So back to the question - How bad is it on the motor to be running with this light on?

Need95-00CTD

I had the sma eproblem with my truck when I got it. The filter looked new, but it wouldn't drain water from the petcock. I changed the filter, and the thing was full of crud, it almost looked like rust dust. Before I put the water sensor back in (holds the petcock) I put it in the parts cleaner...Works great now, use a really small pipe cleaner to get into all of the holes, and clean it with it open and close quite a few times.

woodrat

With a functioning filter that can be drained properly, I think it is no big deal to drive a ways with the light on, but if you can't get yours to drain properly, I would move it up the list of things to fix right away.

gcliburn

Kinda off the subject, but about the light coming on if you wash the engine, mine did that a time or two and a friend of mine told me to take WD-40 and spray both sides of the connections. It displaces the water that got into the plug and keeps the light from coming on. It worked for me, hopefully will for you guys too if lights being on aggrevates you like it does me.

Thomtek5

4RnrRick, be careful about fuel system problems, Mine cost alot. new(remanufactured) lift pump and injector pump.

Jim5870

Mine would come on every time I went throught the car wash.

andyr354

No need to wait. Just fire it up!

woodrat

Mine sure likes it better if I wait for the glow plugs...

andyr354

B series cummins has no glow plugs.

4RnrRick

even I know there are no glow plugs.....

woodrat

grid heaters then.... I do know that if I try to start it dead cold, it runs rougher, smokes a little, and takes longer to get warmed up enough to drive. In the summer, it doesn't matter much, but in the fall, winter and spring, I wait.

I guess I never have looked that closely at the engine to see if there were glow plugs or not. The PO told me it had glow plugs and I just took his word for it. All the other diesels I have owned or worked on, Ford, Chev, MB and VW, had them. I still don't even have a service manual for the diesel engine. I have a haynes manual that covers the truck, but nothing for the diesel part.

Actually, I once had a two cylinder Lister air cooled diesel in a boat that had no glow plugs. There were little recesses in the head where you would put alcohol soaked cotton and light it with a match to warm up the head. Fortunately, it was never cold enough around here to have to mess with that often.

andyr354

The ford and GM engines were IDI (InDirect Injection) engines that do not inject fuel directly into the combustion chamber. They inject the fuel into a separate chamber that requires the heat of the glow plug to get it started.

DI engines inject directly into the combustion chamber and do not need them.

Sorry for the Hijack Rick.