Water in Fuel Sensor Stays ON

[JohnS]

I just added Ray's Fuel line fittings which resulted in disconn'ing the water in fuel sensor. A couple of days later, the water in fuel indicator lit up and will not go out. It seems to me that disconnecting the connector would result in the indicator light going out (not illuminated), however, it stays on. This tells me that either; a new short exists between the two wires that attach to the sensor, or... simply unplugging the sensor results in the illuminatiuon of the water in fuel indicator as well as having water in the fuel filter housing. BTW, I did, and do regularly, drain a bit of fuel out of the filter housing. Any Ideas would be greatly appreciated.



Thanks,

John

 

[C1B1DIESEL]

JohnS.

Have you checked the connection,make sure it is tight,

no pins pushed back, no moisture in connection. these can make the lite come on.

Chris

 

[JohnS]

Thanks for the suggestion. I verified that the connector was dry and inserted as far as possible, also made sure the wires were not pulled out of the connector itself and still no luck. Looks like I'll be shaggin a shorted set of wires. Hope I'm lookin at the right connector... the one at the bottom of the fuel filter canister.

 

[Mopar-muscle]

yes the one at the bottom is correct , if i wasn't supposed to be sleeping i'd go and check , maybe someone with an 00 or 01 will go out and unplug theirs and see if its on or not ? i'd guess it won't be sicnce water is what shorts the connection to make it go on , do you have any codes set in the computer ?

 

[Big White Beast]

Here's what the manual says.....

As water level increases the resistance across the WIF sensor decreases. Once the value reaches 30 to 40K ohm the ECM will activate the WIF lamp.



A high resistance short up the line might give you this problem. But I would look at or near the area where you were working. It is possible the sender just went bad. If you have a meter you could measure the resistance of the sensor.



It sounds like it sends a resistance to the ECM at all times and the ECM measures the change. So unplugged may give you a signal also.



Hope some of this helps,



Garrett

 

[Boost]

Hopefully it is just some electrical glitch but... I used to have a 99 SD PSD. The WIF light came on and stayed on after i drained it. I took the filter out to find out what was wrong and found 1/2 inch of SAND in the bottom. Took everything apart and cleaned it, removed the tank and drained it. What a PITA.

 

[JohnS]

I have a friend that has a 2001/cummins, and so we experimented by unplugging his sensor of which the WIF did not turn ON. From this experiement, we eliminated a faulty WIF sensor on my truck based on the fact that mine stays ON when disconnected. I did check the resistance of the sensor, ~55Kohms and the resistance between the two wires at the connector and not attached to the sensor ~50Kohms... must be on the edge of triggering. I did notice a bit of fuel on the connector of the ECM, hard not to splash fuel on stuff when doing the banjo's, I'll try cleaning that off. I'm curious though, it seems like this indicator light may be latched ON, meaning that even if I do correct the probelm, the ECM might have to be cleared of any codes. BTW, I did have a P0123 code set, think it has something to do with throttle position voltage being too high. At any rate, how are the codes cleared??? is it simply by removing power? Thank you all.

 

[Motorhead]

Just a suggestion... Try dis-connecting your batteries for a while. Might get rid of the light.

 

[C1B1DIESEL]

Here is a check to do on the wires. The ecm send a signal out to pin B of WIF sensor. Pin A is a common Grd wire. High signal back to ecm tell it that water is in fuel.

Water has different resistance than fuel.

I disconnected my wif sensor and the lite does not come on. I have not tried leaving it up plug though



So 1 of 2 things possible. wires shorted or possible some thing is touching the contacts inside the housing. You might remove filter and inspect the metal contacts of the sensor. if they are okay then try checking the wiring. Instructions below.



Disconnect harness from ECM. Check pins for damaged. No damage, wet.

Disconnect WIF sensor from harness.

Return Wire Resistance - Checking

Measure resistance from pin 11 to pin A. Max: 10 ohms.

If not to specification, repair wire or replace harness.

Signal Wire Resistance - Checking

Measure resistance from pin 21 to pin B. Max: 10 ohms.

If not to specification, repair wire or replace harness.



If you check out http://dodgeram.org/tech/dsl/ECM/index.html

There is a copy of wire diagram for a 2000 dodge ecm.

Hope this helps

 

[bbutler]

It might not have anytning to do with the unpluging of the sensor. It may be caused by a dirty sensor. Remove the fuel filter and clean the sensor with a clean cloth. Referance TBS 14-03-00

 

[JohnS]

Absolutely outstanding... the wiring diagrams are exactly what I needed, thank you all very much. I can tell you from experience that the Haynes manuals have very little electrical information in them pertaining to 98. 5 and up trucks, although the electrical info isn't too bad for earlier models. I had absolutely no idea where the WIF interfaced that being either the PCM or the ECM (Haynes says PCM for the newer truck BTW), I was kind of hoping to gather that info on this site. Knowing where the wires end up is a good portion of the battle, of which I feel confident in getting to the bottom of it now... I'll post when I find it. I sure didn't want to send the truck in for repair over something I feel I caused. You just gotta love this sight.