water in fuel

[LEE BROWN]

i have an 06 duramax gmc 2500 truck, the engine light came on saturday. truck ran fine but sounded loud (diesel sound) when idling and was sluggish when engine was cold. dropped it off at dealer they called back and said i have water in the fuel. the thing that gets me is i have used around 10 gallons of fuel that i put in when i filled up a week before this happened. would it take this long for the water to show up? has anyone had this happen and gas station or their fuel supplier pay the repair bill? i'm not sure if truck has a "water in fuel" light i don't have it back yet, if so i wonder why it didn't come on sooner.

[DmaxMaverick]

Welcome to the Forums!

Water problems can happen. Rare, but it happens. Most of the time when the dealer says water, they didn't do proper diagnostics and are full of it.

Ask them what the DTC (Diagnostic Trouble Code) was that caused the SES, and what they intend to do to correct it.

Of course, they will want you to foot the bill for all the repairs because contaminated fuel is not covered under warranty. Tell them, either there is no water in your fuel, or they have to repair the obviously non operating WIF sensor and/or lamp, under warranty. This will include any and all collateral damage caused by the failed WIF sensor/lamp.

In the meanwhile, go to the dealer and pull a fuel sample for yourself. Don't take one they pulled, get one for yourself and have it tested by a lab. Most lab's that do oil sample testing can also do fuel testing. If there was water in your fuel, it will still be there, even if they drained the filter.

Good luck and let us know what happens.

[LEE BROWN]

now dealer says fuel pressure regulator is bad won't be covered under warranty. i had virginia state weights and measurements guy go by gas station and get fuel sample, he said it looked good and they had no complaints but sent sample to lab. also they have had deliveries since i bought the fuel. i have now turned it into insurance co. under vandalism, seems like it could be because i had burnt a half tank of this fuel till problem occured. hopefully they will cover it. i can't figure out why water in fuel light didn't come on, serivce advisor tried to explain it to me but i really didn't understand it. something about the way the float works for the sensor.

[DmaxMaverick]

Your dealer is full of it. Find another one if you can. The regulator is covered under warranty. Actually, several warranties you have on various systems. It sounds like your dealer wants to throw parts at it without proper diagnostic procedures, and reach into your pocket in the process. Did they say they don't think it was water afterall?

[LEE BROWN]

they say its water,the regulator cannot be covered bc if gm checks it they may find signs of water in it he said. he tried but service manager wouldnt let him.

where is the water sensor and how does it work?

[DmaxMaverick]

The water sensor is a switched float at the bottom of the fuel filter. If you've changed your filter, it's the plastic adapter with the wire harness running to it, and threads in the the filter bottom.

If water caused damage to the regulator, which I seriously doubt, the WIF indicator still failed. Still their problem. Sounds like they want to blame the problem on water, which hasn't been proven. Did they say how they determined there was water? Ask them for a copy of the lab test results, and do your own as well.

[LEE BROWN]

insurance is paying for it,i'll have it back monday. i'm still going to have a top notch gm tech that just opened his own shop check the situation with the water sensor, of course i'll be paying for that. i feel that should of came on with any amount of water that would do damage. if it was water that did the damage it has to be vandalism bc i burnt about 10 gallons of fuel out of that tankfull.

[LEE BROWN]

still think i'm getting the runaround from the dealership. called today when it was supposed to be ready. service advisor said they are still working on it. all they had to do was put regulator on it i thought, how long could that take cause tank and lines had already been taken care of? btw where is regulator located at? also he said fuel pump may be bad, because of the trash, i said what trash, he said the rust particles from the water. come on now this truck only has 8,000 miles on it. i might find out more tomorrow if i don't go down there myself cause insurance adjuster that wrote it comes to the collision center where i work tomorrow, maybe he can tell me what he saw and thinks about it.

[DmaxMaverick]

Runaround is an understatement at this point. The regulator is located on the HP pump in the engine valley. Light weight job.

[LanduytG]

insurance is paying for it,i'll have it back monday. i'm still going to have a top notch gm tech that just opened his own shop check the situation with the water sensor, of course i'll be paying for that. i feel that should of came on with any amount of water that would do damage. if it was water that did the damage it has to be vandalism bc i burnt about 10 gallons of fuel out of that tankfull.


I guess I don't see why the insurance company should pay?

[LEE BROWN]

here is a pic of the fuel filter taken by insurance adjuster.
235

[LEE BROWN]

here is a bottle with a sample of fuel with rust in the bottom taken by adjuster. 236

[LEE BROWN]

didn't talk to service advisor today will call tomorrow. insursance isn't just for collision, this is a comp. claim, pays to have a good insurance co. i work at a collision center and beleive me there are some bad co. out there.

[DmaxMaverick]

That was either a defective fuel filter when new, or that's not your filter. We've seen some filters showing rust right out of the box, but that was the previous design (pre 2006, single media), and only a very limited amount.

There's NO WAY an engine would run at all with a "water" condition that would cause rust over that much of the filter can, during the time you've owned the truck.

I still think they are not giving you the whole story, or they just don't know. If that was the OE filter, I'd call foul on an OE part.

Thanks for the update.

[DmaxMaverick]

My insurance company paid for rodent damage on my 2000 Impala. Nesting and wires chewed under the hood. I have no doubt they would cover a situation like this. It absolutely pays to have a good insurance company, even if it costs a little more.

[SoTxPollock]

That is absolutely the worst fuel filter can I've ever seen. How did it continue to run? Thats the nice thing about comprehensive coverage. Did you ever go to the beach and leave your truck unattended? Was it salt water? Absolutely incredible. If that really is your filter can and your fuel drained from your tank, they better replace everything that has anything to do with fuel, now, because the insurance is not gonna pay more than once for something like this, IMHO.

[LEE BROWN]

dealer says they are still "checking things out" i'm going there tomorrow unannounced and get this thing straight. saying now regulator didn't fix it either. every one that sees the filter pic. can't believe it, they can't believe the truck was even running. prior to engine light coming on the day before i took it to them it never gave me one seconds trouble, i loved the truck. its never been near salt water.

[LEE BROWN]

now they have to replace injectors and pump, 6 are bad but doing all. i went over it with tech, he sounded for real, he does all diesel work there. basicaly the whole fuel system will be new or cleaned. still thinking what if this happens again cause water in fuel light didn't come on. he said additives put in fuel now don't seperate the water and float for water sensor won't pick it up. :confused: what good is it then.

[SoTxPollock]

I think we've all been wondering about what additives are in the new fuel, seems an awful lot of folks are having gelling and freezing up fuel filters now that didn't have the problem in previous years. Mark Rinker even mentioned he was able to dislodge a build-up of ice from one of his filters. We all know that had to be water. Good to hear they are replacing most everything in the fuel system. What a bummer. Hope it all goes well from here on.

[LEE BROWN]

a freind of mine talked to a diesel tech today a when he first started telling him the story he said "is it rust" and he said what it probably is that when the truck was built in 2/06 and purchased by me in 7/06 it had very little fuel in it and sat basically the whole time. so it collected moisture then and the thing to do when you purchase a new diesel is to change the filter shortly after buying to see what the filter looks like.

alot of people have different opinions on this, i'm just glad its being taken care of and hoping it will be right when i leave the dealership with it.

[LEE BROWN]

Still no progress, parts ordered, will be overnighted when available. Talked with service manager today, no luck at all. Having him get GM rep. call me maybe tomorrow. I still feel GM should be responsible for this since water in fuel light never came on. Still can't see how all of this has gone bad and I drove it to dealership. What really makes me mad now is I need truck this weekend to tow my race car, told service manager that he said he can't help me but could get me a loaner car. I don't need one I have a car to drive during the week all I need is something for the weekend to tow. :mad:

[DickWells]

DMAX is right. The old happy-run-around. :( On my old 95 Sub, the WIF light came on, and I had no more than a half-teaspoon in the bottom of my filter. The DM should work just as well. Give em heck!
Good luck.
DW

[More Power]

Unless I missed the post... what's the inside of the fuel tank look like?

Jim

[LEE BROWN]

Parts are in, should be ready Tuesday.

I have another story, Talked to local guy with roofing company who had duramax truck do what mine did he took it to a different dealer than me. Rust and water in filter but he kept fuel from tanks that they drained and found nothing in it but this fixed the truck, water in fuel light never came on either. Truck has 18,000 miles on it. He has his own pumps at his shop and had fuel supplier come and check tanks, found nothing wrong. He has 2 more duramax trucks checked them and they had started to rust in filter. Also he had just recently switched to low sulfur fuel about 3 weeks before this hapened. He checked his ford and dodge trucks filters and no rust found, he has about 20 diesel trucks. Now you tell me what it is. :confused:

[LEE BROWN]

Just got truck back this evening, so far so good. GM rep. is still supposed to contact me. I'll probavly check fuel filter after 4,000 miles or maybe sooner.

[DickWells]

I didn't check back through all the other replys to see if this has already been mentioned, but here's something. The Mar/Apr issue of 8 Lug Diesel Truck mag has an article (P80) on the D-Max fuel filter R&R. Their WIF light didn't come on, either. Their WIF sensor was clogged full of water and rust! The little float in the bottom was seized up with rust. Couldn't send a signal if it wanted to. Sounds like that might have been the case with your truck.
Hope this isn't redundant info, and that it helps
DW

[LEE BROWN]

Truck is fine except for one thing, there is a slight vibration i can feel coming through the brake pedal almost like a tingling feeling when i'm stopped, weather its in park or in gear. Going to have them check it out monday. Hopefully its something minor and they find it easily.

[Duramaster]

:D

I've had a couple of these "water in fuel" issues. The first thing that I do as a technician is check DTC's. Experience has shown that the knock usually comes along with a misfire dtc. I always check the fuel filter and air filter. Then, I remove the fuel filter and dump it out into a clean pan! Now I agree that the WIF sensor should have turned on, but only if the water is NOT SUSPENDED (in the fuel)!! Most of the time when these trucks come in with the knock and fuel contamination the fuel in the filter is very cloudy and there isn't enough water in the filter to actually float the switch!

Now the unfortunate part is that after flushing the fuel system and adding fresh fuel along with some STANADYNE to the tank, there may be an injector or two that may need to be replaced.:cool: