I had the same problem. Take a look at my thread. This cleared it up.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...n-my-hfcm.html

Messy, but very inexpensive.

Tim

 

Thanks Tim,
The filters have been changed at 10K since new - the HFCM has not been drained as recommended. The dealer said they cleaned out the HFCM last week - it's back at the dealer now and I should know more Monday afternoon. I will let ya'll know what I find out.

 

Back from the dealer for the second time. They found more gunk in the water separator. Cleaned it out, codes all cleared and it seems to be running fine now. They said it was not in limp mode when it wouldn't get out of it's own way - they said not enough fuel was getting through the separator - basically fuel starvation.

Tomorrow I am hooking up my 10,000+ lbs boat and pulling it a little over 100 miles, we will see if the problem is really taken care of.

 

drain upon arrival. Drain again in a few days.

If it flows well then you may have gotten it all out now.

Lesson learned. Regular draining will help to prevent the gunk.

 

Will do!
Thanks again.

 

200 mile round trip, 100 of it pulling 11,000 lbs boat and no further problems. I got lucky!!

 

congrats!!

 

The important thing is to determine what the gunk is/was. There are two very different issues I'm aware of:

1. Parafin separation - This seems to show as waxy globs forming in the water sump of the HFCM. They will clog the drain valve and if bad enough can block the WIF sensor so you don't get an alarm if you do get water buildup. The fix for this is to open and clean the HFCM if you find the drain isn't flowing at a normal rate.

2. Bacterial growth - This shows as slimy gunk on the outside of the HFCM filter and can restrict fuel flow. The fix for this is to "shock" the fuel tank with a good dose of diesel biocide such as Power Service Bio-Kleen (small bottle of expensive toxic stuff). If you have this issue you will need to check and service your HFCM filter on a short cycle until the dead bacteria gunk is gone.

The key thing here is that issue 1 just happens sometimes and you can't do much of anything to prevent it, while issue 2 once it occurs is likely to continue to occur until you kill off the supply of bacteria in the tank.

 

I can crack the banjo bolts. Are the rubber washers reusable ?

 

yeah, just crack them open and see what you get.

 

Listen to this guy

Draining helps, but it don't get all of the contamination out

You'll be surprised how much crud is inside.

 

Or how little. I had a case where the drain was clogged by a pea sized blop of parafin, and there were two others like it in the sump. I've also seen pictures of sumps completely full of parafin.

It would seem the parafin precipitation may be related to water in the fuel since it seems to only occur in the water sump. I rarely see any water when I drain my separator, perhaps a few pinhead sized drops which may explain why I also don't see much parafin precipitation.

Possibly those with heavily clogged sumps are in areas where for whatever reason they see more water in fuel / tank condensation or something.

 

Had my truck in the shop no less than 10 times in a years time for water sep/wrench indicator/limp mode issues only to eventually find out I had a malformed fuel tank that was letting rain water in around the top...$1200 replacement. Funny that it wasn't found until I was out of warranty

 

If you were at the dealer multiple times for the same complaint and what was clearly a manufacturing defect was found later out of warranty then Ford *should* cover it since the problem was reported in warranty and the fact that their trained technicians took so long to find the manufacturing defect cause is their fault, not yours. If I were you I'd ping Ford and ask about it.