Water in fuel light on dash
 

Today - for the first time ever the water-in-fuel warning light on the dash came on. I was pulling up to a light and ding... there it was. I went through the light and pulled over - but by then it had gone off again. I drained the fuel separator.

Now... the last time I bought fuel the pump was running really, really slow. In fact, so slow that I put in less than half a tank and gave up waiting. I was not sure if that indicated a problem... but adding 2+2 worried me.

I went back to the station and told the manager about the slow pump and the WIF warning. She told me no one else had complained about that pump and that they have their own warning system to detect water and it's not tripped.

OK... now what? I'm about a quarter way through this tank of fuel. I'm inclined to run it through (if the WIF warning doesn't chime again) and then replace the filter. Anything else I could/should do or watch for?

You need to get a fuel sample out of the filter drain and let it settle. See what is there. If you pumped out of the bottom of the station's tank you might have picked up some junk. That said, the WIF is only two probes that stick up in the bottom of the filter can. If there is a short ANY WHERE in the circuit you will get a light. My connector is filled with dielectric grease to prevent moisture from shorting the leads at the connection. I also had to recover the leads as they enter the WIF sensor at the filter. They were bare for a short distance and would give a light every time it rained or I washed the engine.

I would think changing the fuel filter would be a good idea. You could even clean the WIF sensor to just make sure everything is good to go.

dave,

Did you see any water when you drained the separator? If not it's probably a glitch. If so, keep an eye on it for a while and run some algaecide through to stop future algae buildup. Then change the filter. Dark "mud" on the element is probably algae and not dirt, but it can take a while to build up.


Carl,

As far as I know we always "pump out of the bottom of the station's tank" at fuel stations. Isn't that where the pickup is?

There are two electric connectors on fuel
filter housing, if water gets in there you
will get light, ten minutes later light goes
out when it dries from the heat from motor.

If the fuel pumpes sloooooow, then their filter(s) is plugged. Their filter will bypass sending what ever into your tank. The pump jocks are programmed to say there is nothing wrong with our stuff. That is why I have a separate tank I put fuel in first. Their garbage won't get past my filters.

I find this a little miss leading. Some pumps are slow to start off with and then if you let off the trigger and wait for about 10 seconds they will pump at normal pace. I was told the reason behind this but it is escaping my mind at this moment but I think it was something to do with the fact that the pump it self looses prime do to drain back and it takes a sec to re prime it self.

The WIF is very sensitive. Just a couple of drops will turn it on. Just drain it and continue on. If it keeps coming on, there might be an issue. I would just top of with more diesel from another station. No reason the replace the filter.


Slow pumps shold be avoided. The filter is plugged and will pass dirt. Tell the person insdie the station. Thye don't chande the filters until people complain. A working dispenser flow at 10 gallon/minute.

Back in the 70's when I used to work as a mechanic for SCRTD, we had our own fuel tanks and the pumps were set at 60GPM, we had 2" nozzles on the fuel island. The coaches had 200-gallon tanks on them and they had to be filled every day that would have taken forever to refuel 350 - 400 coaches every shift.
The tank had an enormous vent pipe and on the top of the tank was a Scully Vent Whistle
http://www.scully.com/pdf_brochures/cor_bro_english.pdf
that would whistle as the tank filled and the air was being pushed out, when the whistle stopped the tank was full but if you weren’t paying attention and let off the lever the fuel would blow back out of the filler and you would dump about 5 to 10 gallons on the ground and you would get soaked in smelly high sulfur diesel fuel, someone got the idea to punch a hole in an air brake diaphragm and stick the filler spout through it to keep the fuel from splashing but now it made a good seal and started blowing the seams out of the tanks and making a bigger mess.

The stations around here, if it is pumping real slow then the station tanks are almost empty and the pump is sucking air.

How does water get in fuel except by pump? My little puff of smoke with rain drops light is on. How serious is that?