[Joe Momma]

About a month ago I was towing and at a stop light when the light turned green I gave it lite throttle and it died! I really did not expect it to restart but it did. Fast forward to today not towing pulling out of my daughters school it died on me twice but restarted both times?? 82k trouble free miles (except for that mega dollar leaking water pump)

Help?

Email [email protected]

Joe
www.chevynova.com
:help

 

[05_LLY]

Joe sounds like a bad fuel filter, how long since its been changed? how many miles? dose it run fine other than the stalling?

LAter
Caleb

 

[Monster truck]

is it a auto or stick?

 

[Joe Momma]

Caleb it has been about 15k miles, the last one put on was the new high micron that GM gave away for free.

Junior

 

[Joe Momma]

oooops it is auto.

Junior/Joe Momma

 

[05_LLY]

15k yep thats where i would start, i change mine every other oil change (about 7000 miles) sometimes sooner due to poor performance due to a dirty fuel filter!

The filters are to small to start with and second they filter such small particals that 1 tank of dirty fuel will plug them right up!!!

Hope this helps!!
Caleb

 

[Joe Momma]

What is the best way to change the fuel filter, I have never done this myself.

thanks

Joe momma.

 

[ob_1jr]

check this link out: http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1508

also, I usually put a plastic bag over the filter after I get it loose enough to pull off by hand so it doesn't spill all over.

 

[Joe Momma]

The day before I was going to change the filter my truck would turn over but not fire. I have auto start and it has acted up before so I flipped the small switch under the dash to reset it no start. I have the Edge box puggedin under the hood and it has failed before also so I unplugged it, no start. I went to my shop to get some tools to change the fuel filter as suggested, I decided to try to start it, it started. I plugged the edge box back in and it started again no problem. so I changed the filter and it appeared to be aobut 90% dirty. If you forward your email address I have photos of the dirty 15k filter if you know how to post them?
My direct email is [email protected]. So far it has started with no problems, going on an 8 hour round trip tomorrow. We shall see.

Joe Momma
2003 DM

 

[Joe Momma]

Oh yeah by the way the link fo rthe fuel filter replacement was great!! Took aobut 20 min to change. I did not bend the a/c line but I had a helper pull gently on the intercooler line to get the filter to slide by, worked fine. Hope I cannot hurt this big line by doing it this way??
the plastic bag did the trick too!!


Joe Momma

 

[05_LLY]

Cool Glad you got it fixed up!!!!!!

 

[ob_1jr]

Oh yeah by the way the link fo rthe fuel filter replacement was great!! Took aobut 20 min to change. I did not bend the a/c line but I had a helper pull gently on the intercooler line to get the filter to slide by, worked fine. Hope I cannot hurt this big line by doing it this way??
the plastic bag did the trick too!!


Joe Momma

That's the way I do it and I don't have a helper to move the intercooler line out of the way. You can post a pic if you have it uploaded to a picture hosting site. I don't know what happened to the garage's, but normally you would upload to your garage and link it to the picture.

 

[Blacktooth]

I have had the SAME problem, TWICE now. I also have an 03 with about 63K.
I've routinely changed the fuel filters about every 10K which seems pretty frequent but...

First occurance was about 2 months ago - almost identical to what was described herein. The dealer also said the same as 05 LLY described, but they also said "too much water."
So, I had the filter changed, purged/cleaned the fuel system, run with DieselKleen, etc.

Yesterday the truck started fine, idled then died without so much as a sputter. I suspect it did a repeat except it won't start whatsoever.
I've only driven about 3K miles since the last time, but I'd had to get nearly a full tank the other day but from a station that is as reputable as the rest so I wouldn't suspect overly bad quality fuel?

Now, my question is if there was too much water, shouldn't the water sensor pick that up and send an error message?

Is there a way to tell if it's the same problem or something else fairly quickly?

I'm new to the diesel so I'm still learning all the gotcha's, but it seems pretty sensitive. If it's so touchy should a guy carry an extra filter all the time?

 

[ob_1jr]

Well, the easiest way to tell if you have water in your fuel it to drain the filter (there is a drain on the bottom) into a jar and let it sit. It should separate pretty quick if you have measureable water in it. You might have to loosen the bleed screw too. The water in fuel sensors are known to be somewhat flakey. I would double check and make sure the dealership plugged it back in. You can also test it by taking the WIF sensor off the bottom of the filter, plug it in and short out the 2 sides of the sensor. It should give you a water in fuel message on your DIC. It is possible that you got some bad fuel again. If you find a lot of water in the fuel, I would persue legal actions against the station.

 

[Blacktooth]

THANKS!
When you say "measurable amount of water" do you mean if it's enough to see, and does that equate to a "lot"? I wouldn't expect any fuel to be water-free, but I don't know what amount can be tolerated.

Does the WIF sensor do anything other than notify the driver of poor fuel, or does it also cut the ignition/pump/etc so as to prevent water from being injected thus minimizing risk of damage?

If measurable water is found, does the tank need drained or can an additive be applied or...?

If it's not water, I'm surprised that the filter could have been plugged so rapidly so as to step from full-power to "dead." I'd have expected initial loss of power or rough idle, but as I say I'm not overly experienced with diesel engines.

Thanks again! I'll give it a shot.

 

[ob_1jr]

Yes, measureable...being able to see water in the drained fuel. there will be a little, but I am betting there is probably at least an 1/8 of the filter to stop the engine from running. You will get some surface rust on the inside of the filter over a normal duration of use. If you see a lot of water, you can try and prime the system again and drive it to see if you can repeat the water...if there is that much water in the fuel, I highly doubt that an additive will help. As far as I know, the WIF sensor just lets you know there is water in the fuel....beyond that, I know as much as you do...I don't know if it will shut down the pump or not.

As far as the filter getting plugged so quick, it has been know to happen...it only takes one bad tank to mess up the filter. Did youj run the previous tank almost empty? I haven't had any problems as of yet, but I do have a pre-oem filter too. Out of curiousity, where are you located and what have the temps been like? I run an additive with almost every tank year round....I use stanadyne, but there are many others that do just as good of a job....you might want to try and run some additives with future tanks to see if it helps out.

 

[Blacktooth]

Hmm... food for thought.

Yes, I'd had to fill it with about 22 gal and had burned down probably 8 gal or so when this happend.
I usually put some additive in when filling, but I'd run out on the previous tank. Go figure, right?

I'm located near Denver and the weather has been very mild, temps have been in the high 70's to 80's for some time.

So, it sounds like if there's that much water, and considering the amount of fuel remaining, the smartest thing would be to purge the tank and try to start fresh.

Thanks.

 

[Joe Momma]

Stalling Update From Joe Momma

Knock on wood no more stalling or problems so far since the fuel filter change. I have never seen my water light come on, guess I have been lucky not to get any bad fuel. I did hear a 2006 idling at the dealer last week it was unbelievably quiet, makes me want a new one.

Thanks for all the help!

Joe momma

Just checked my mileage average for 40k miles so far is 17.1, this last tank was 18.5.

 

[Blacktooth]

Thanks!

Ditto on the "THANKS!"

I've now run a few thanks through the new filter without any problems.
I poured all the fuel from the filter into a jar and never saw any indication of any water.

I will admit that I wasn't able to figure out how to short the WIF sensor out to test whether the light would come on. There wasn't anything to short between...?? The only metal which could be conceived as a contact node was the ring used as the float-stop. I looked the float over to see if it was connected in some way that would be part of the sensor, and it seemed too light to have a magnetic core or anything.

I also had trouble with using a wrench on the filter - the filter is positioned so close to the head that the filter wrench couldn't slide on.

Regardless, it's run smooth as a whistle since.

Thanks again!

 

[Joe Momma]

Filter Wrench

If I remember correctly the bottom of the filter is a reduced diameter for the wrench correct? I used the flat band type filter wrench with the handle that pivots and tightens up on the filter when you turn it, is that the style you used? If so I do not recall having this problem?

Joe momma