2004.5 develops an intermittent miss... and found approx 1oz of rusty water

[ndennis]

Good morning, My 2004. 5 (49000 miles since 03-05) just started an intermittent miss. So far, only on startup. Feels like air in the system and then clears up. The worst was on Tuesday, when it actually died and on a restart a bit of white smoke and it ran ragged. I was on the way to the dealer and it cleared up within about 15 seconds after I started to move. All this week, it would miss only intermittently on startup and would clear up within seconds. Cold... hot... short sit... long sit... did not matter. I did pull(and changed) the filter and drained all of the fuel into a plastic container and it appears to have a bit of rusty water... maybe an ounce at the most. Now up to this point, the 04. 5 and the 2000 I have have never skipped a bit while the engine was on. On this past Monday while driving I felt a very brief miss and it only happened once and then the next morning bad rough start and idle. I had filled up at the Flying J in Lodi, CA on monday evening and previous fillup was at a PetroMaxx on Travis and N. Texas in Fairfield. Used these places before and not had an issue.

My question(s) to the readers of the board:

Should I immediately have the tank drained and flushed? or run it for short period of time and drain the filer bowl again and see what comes out?

Thank you in advance for any help or input on this situation.

N Dennis

 

[FParlee]

Water in fuel????

I was having the same problems with my 04. 5 last winter. There were a couple of TDR threads about the open barbs/nipples on top of the tank. I happen to be pulling the tank around the same time for the vent mod and found "crap" in the tank, and tell-tale signs of standing water around the open barbs. I cleaned out the tank and took both hose barbs to a "T" and then to a small clear fuel filter to allow the tank to breath and to see any contamination. The other end of the filter went up into the frame cross member to keep it out of the road grime. I have had no fuel related problems since. I was changing my fuel filter every few months before hosing off the vents. Now I change the filter on recommended mileage with no problems!



Even if this is not the source of comtamination this time, get those barbs covered!!!



Fred Parlee