2005 F250 Superduty Crewcab 4x4 6.0L diesel/auto

Wife drove the truck before me and bunched the floor mat under the pedals. I didn't notice the mat issue when I drove the truck today. I accelerated fully after doing a left turn onto a busy highway. The motor spun up hard with the accelerator floored but because of the mats, the pedal stuck all the way down. I was approaching stopped traffic while under full acceleration and I shut the engine off and pulled over to the shoulder all while braking hard ( it was a hell of a ride!). I freed the pedal and restarted the engine.

Now, despite a bit less than 1/2 tank of fuel (I have the 38 gal tank), the dash readout was showing "Low Fuel", the gas gauge was below E and the engine was running like it was running out of fuel. I turned the engine off again and left it off for 1/2 hour before restarting it but the gauge and engine still behaved the same. As I drove to the nearest diesel station, the engine was not running "right". Of course the station I pulled into had 1 diesel pump and the pump was broken. Because I thought I might actually be out of fuel, an understanding stranger took me to the store to buy some gas cans and then to another station to get 6 gallons of fuel. I got back to the truck and added the 6 gallons of fuel. When I turned the key on, the fuel gauge immediately came up to 1/2 tank. I then drove to that other station and added another 15 gallons of fuel to fill it. This confirmed that I had about 18 gallons of fuel in truck when the "Low fuel" warning occurred.

So, what the heck was going on with the fuel gauge? I am sure the "Low Fuel" warning is tied directly to the gauge but why was the gauge reading low? Is it possible that the "Key-off" while under full acceleration followed by hard braking had confused the ECU?

I am just trying to figure out if I have a fuel sender problem or a confused computer that corrected itself.

Until this incident, the fuel gauge has never been a problem but the wife messing up the mats has been an issue!

-ron

 

The level reading may be off do sp,e crud in the tank that i now on the
sensor and more than likely you also have a plugged filter.

Here is what I would do. Replace the filter and then remove the tank
and pump all the fuel in it into cans. Remove the top ring and take the sender
out of the tank and clean the strainer and the level sender with some alcohol.
Check the movement of the float. That little beasty is almost $300 depending
on where you buy one. You can get the strainer for a lot less.
Once you have the tank open and the fuel out clean the inside with a lint free towel.
Next step will be checking the fuel in the cans for crud. The best thing to do would
be to use a pump and filter to clean it up. Try and not disturb the fuel in the cams
if crap has settled. You don't want that back in a clean tank. Also while your there
you could do the harpoon mod to the tank for faster filling. Just use the search tool
to look up "Harpoon Fuel Tank".

One other thing to check when you cleaning the strainer foot is the little oneway
rubber valve. If it's gotten stiff you may as well replace it or it can pull air when
the fuel level drops below that point.



Sean <BR>

6.0L Tech Folder

 

thanks for the info

 

If you fill the tank with engine running, that also causes the reading to be off and slowly rises by percentages IIRC.

Mine read E last night, no low level light and overhead console read 30 miles to empty... stalled at the light, 100 yards from the pump.