Water in Diesel Fuel from Flying J Pilot Knoxville, Tn

[Star_Gazer]

Hi All,

I just returned a day late after having my fuel tank removed, drained, new pump, and new sending unit. Tech found plenty of water in my tank, as in a couple gallons.

Long story but I need opinions and will try just giving facts.

I pulled in to this place Saturday evening after driving 300+ miles with no issues. Next morning I top off with 19.6 gals, about 1/2 of tank, in the RV lane. Get on the road right away, and stall out 25 miles up the road. Drain lots of water our to seperator. Had to get towed.

Was on Sunday so they towed me, and my Casita to a pep boys where I was hoping filter change would help. No luck. Yesterday morning I was towed to the local Ford Dealer.

Spent all day there while they did their job. He showed me the pumped out fuel and water, locked up pump, sender, etc.. Filled a gallon jug with the fuel out of the fuel rail and line(?), it had about 1"+ of water in the bottom. He said the rest of the tank had about the same %. This was well above the intake line of the sending unit. Had some junk and crud in the tank but he said normal for this age of truck and had nothing to do with the water issue.

This is about the extent of my knowledge of how these things work.

I called the corp office of this well known company and started a complaint. I actually called the store immediately after I broke down along the hwy the day before too. They researched the time and pump according to my receipt. After a couple hours they called me back and said they indicated no water was was saying my water problem did not come from them. I called back and talked to someone else, they said the same thing. Not their fault even after I explained I drove in with no issues at all.

This corp office just happened to be 1 mile from this large Ford Dealer and I offered to bring a sample, they said don't bother as the front doors are locked! Seriously he did say that! At that point I hung up and made a factual post to their facebook page. Soon after someone from there wanted my contact information but I have heard nothing yet.

I want to give them an opportunity to do what I think is right before I publicly put the name out. Hope they do but after getting blown off by 2 customer reps on the phone I doubt it.

So they said if I had bad fuel I would have not even been able to drive off the lot even. However I had half a tank of good stuff, plus what was already in the fuel system. The gal jug showed that it holds about that so I know I had at least that much clean fuel. Then it probably took a few minutes for the contaminated fuel to mix with the good stuff too, and the water to sink, fill up my seperator, and stall me out? So driving 25 miles seems likely? I am only guessing as I am not a mechanic.

Before I left on this trip, which was about 1200 miles so far, I drained the seperator, and used Sea Foam in the tank. Always do this before a trip, or when letting the truck sit between trips.

So anyone care to comment? Do I have a right to complain and get some help from them? After counting my towing, repair, new fuel, I have over $2500 in this experience. Not even counting my lost day of work yesterday.

Thanks for listening.

Dean

[tbred]

Call your insurance company, I have read on the Ford diesel site where several folks have had luck with insurance picking up the tab.

[CA_Traveler]

Unless others have the same problem from that station I doubt they will help. They may have water in the fuel and you might have had some water in your tank before filling. Hard to determine.