Engine/Transmission (1998.5 - 2002) 5 MM piece of junk in fuel filter canister!

[Seed Guy]

I changed my fuel filter on my 02 today and when i droped the filter into a plastic bucket a 5MM hunk of what appears to be volcanic rock was bouncing around in the bucket. I mean the filter did its job. But are hunks of crap this big suppose to make it this far. I have no idea how it got in there. I am very anal about fueling up. But my dad has borrowed the truck on occasion and i know he doesnt view things quite the same. I was a little :--) when i saw that thing. somebody either reassure me or deliver the bad news.

 

[TomGolden]

My $. 02 worth says that as long as you have not as yet noticed any differences in the way your engine idles, runs, revs, drives, etc. , that you are likely in the clear. Also, I would think that if you somehow got any thing more than that one stray piece of junk in your fuel system, you would have seen at least a few "particles" when changing the filter - not just the one.



All together now... "happy thoughts - happy thoughts - ... "



Tom

 

[illflem]

Sounds like what you found is what's called asphaltines, a totally normal impurity in all diesel fuel. Sometimes the asphaltines can join together in the filter to from a clod like you found.

Read about them here-

http://www.baldwinfilter.com/engineer/94_14.html

 

[Seed Guy]

Yep i think that is what it is. I tried snapping pics but it was just to small but it does look like a little chuck of asphalt. Hmm learn something new everyday. I wonder where i picked up this dirty fuel. I live on the I-5 corridor and always go to truck stops. Did have a couple of stops up in the mountains so maybe that is where i got the dirty fuel. Oh well filled up at the truck stop last night. And new stratpore today life should be good. And no i have not noticed any change in the truck and thank god the thing only has 10K on the clock.

 

[illflem]

I don't think you can blame it on a particular station, more like luck of the draw. Asphaltines tend to settle to the bottom of a tank. If a tanker has been coming back to the depot with a little fuel in the bottom several times them finally dumps it all at one station guess where the majority of the asphaltines end up?



Drive past a station if you see a tanker dumping his load, more than likely he will be stirring up the tanks, suspending asphaltines and other filter clogging sediments from the bottom of the tank.