Howdy guys,

Brand new here and have a little problem. My 2005 F350 diesel (77K) recently had the "water in fuel" warning come on. Had it serviced by a local diesel guy who changed out the necessary filters.
He claims the warning message can only be reset by a tech at a ford garage as they are the only ones with the right "code".
I find that hard to believe that independent mechanics wouldn't have this reset tool/info.
Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

The filters on a 6.0 are not easy to change, and if not done right, that water light will remain on. So far as I know, there is nothing to reset.

On the bottom filter (Under the driver's side door on the frame rail) is the housing that has the water separator. You'll need to take the cover off the separator and flush it out. I've used an air gun to clean mine out. There may be grit and all sorts of stuff in it.

Once clean, you'll need to replace the cover. Be very careful with the gasket, if you pinch it, you'll have to get a new gasket. (about $25 in a kit from Ford). Now, your fuel separator and filter bowl will be empty, you need to reprime it. Take the cap off the filter on top of the engine and turn the key off and on a couple times till fuel fills the bowl and put the cap back on.

The truck should restart. It may white smoke for a little bit till it gets the air out of the system.

Some of the 6.0's have a defective fuel water separator bowl. That may also be your water light problem. If that is the case, the dealer will have to replace the whole housing and all. It was a recalled item.

Skip

 

Hawkeye...here's a link on the "how to" for your instructions on how to drain the water seperater. https://www.ford-trucks.com/lc/lc.ph...ater-drain.htm

Do yourself a favor and drop down to the 6.0 Diesel forum and check out the "Tech Folder". It's, I believe, the 2nd item in the forum. The tech folder has all kinds of good info for your diesel truck!!

Good reading!

Bud

 

Thanks Skip!!

 

Thanks a lot Bud, great info! Sorry for being such a n00b!

 

the guy probaly never drained your water

 

wiingnut...I didn't want to tell him THAT bad news....That would be a mech (?) to stay far away from......

 

I've seen some good mechanics that didn't even know there were 2 filters on the 6 liter trucks. In all honesty, that filter system is a colossal screw up by whatever engineer designed it. It IS NOT the one that is on the Navistar version of that engine. The one on the Navistars is the same filter bowl and water drain found on the 7.3 Powerstrokes. The older design is by far simpler, works better, and far easier to purge the water out than the new design.

Whatever idiot put that filter under the truck and mounted it sideways so when you screw the cap off a quart of diesel fuel lands on you ought to spend a full work week for 6 months changing filters on these trucks. Next time, He/She would learn better than to pull a stunt like that.

On the 4 wheel drives, the front drive shaft is in the way preventing the use of a ratchet allen bit or for that matter a ratchet on the filter cap. The darn cap has to be taken off with a box wrench 1/4 turn and flip and it seems like it's got 40 threads on it especially when diesel fuel is dripping on you while you are under the truck.

The thing is, it's pressurized, so it could have been located anywhere on the truck and could have been mounted with the cap up to keep from making a mess.

Skipper