Dry water/fuel seperator drain valve...is that normal??

[97C5ENVY]

I have a 2008 F250 that i bought 6 months ago and have only put 6k miles on it....current total miles is 30K. I've opened the water/fuel drain valve three times in the past few months and nothing EVER comes out. No water, no diesel, not even a drop of moisture...just bone dry. Is that normal??

[sdetweil]

Originally Posted by 97C5ENVY

I have a 2008 F250 that i bought 6 months ago and have only put 6k miles on it....current total miles is 30K. I've opened the water/fuel drain valve three times in the past few months and nothing EVER comes out. No water, no diesel, not even a drop of moisture...just bone dry. Is that normal??

no.. something should come out..

Sam

[senix]

sounds to me like the valve is clogged. It is all plastic so be careful. You may be able to stick a small wire up there a ways and see.

If you have changed your filters then I would do that and while you have that one out take a closer look at that valve with a flashlight.

[ruschejj]

I have had this problem too. Sometimes I think a kind of "vapor lock" happens. It will come out if you get things worked out and be ready for it. The flow can get pretty strong.

[sdetweil]

Originally Posted by ruschejj

I have had this problem too. Sometimes I think a kind of "vapor lock" happens. It will come out if you get things worked out and be ready for it. The flow can get pretty strong.

will it come out if the fuel pump is on?

turn truck off,
connect hose, into container
open valve
turn truck on
turn truck off,
close valve
remove hose & container

Sam

[freekyFX4]

Mine just barely drips out. I guess I should mention it to the dealer next time I take it in.

[ruschejj]

I thought the same thing, drain it while it's running. I'd try it. I also thought about using one of those primer bulbs, squeezing it before I hooked it up and then letting it suck a little bit.

[ZeroOne]

My truck did this. Could not get anything out of it for a week. Drove to the dealer, had them check it, and it drained fine.

Maybe try one of those blue rubber things that goes in your ear? Squeeze it, jam it in the tube, and release, if nothing else works? (With the lever open.)

[Hardrock_F250]

I have never had this problem with mine, but my father's did the same thing. As a matter of fact he brought it home from the dealer after they changed the fuel filter, oil, and oil filter, and the fuel light came on. He told me about it so I opened the valve and it only dripped, well I knew this was not right. I cranked the truck up and shut it off and still nothing came out. Next I took the air hose and puffed a small amount of air in the valve and hot ding dang the trash and water that came out. I told the dealer about this last week what happened and they acted like I was dumb and stupid. But anyway if you try this be very careful not to blow up the fuel system with too much pressure.

[jmcbrid]

Had the same problem with mine. Opened the valve and taped the housing with a piece of wood and that started the diesel flow.

[97C5ENVY]

I'll try tapping the housing with the drain open 1st, if nothing then i'll gently stick a small wire up in there to see if anything is blocking the outlet, and lastly i'll try blowing a small amount of compressed air in there. Hopefully one of these methods will work.

Thanks for the tips everyone.

[97C5ENVY]

My water seperator drain valve was clogged so i gently blew compressed air into it and water started flowing but quickly stopped. After a few more attempts i finally gave up on getting it to flow freely. However my jug that i used to catch the water now contain what looked like sand and grass....WTF!!! I can see why my drain is clogged. My question here is when i remove the fuel filter will i have access to clean the inside drain area?

Thanks!

[koho]

Had the same problem. My dealer in New York disasembled the drain valve and it was clogged with what apperaed to be a very fine sawdust. Dealer replaced the valve and contributed the problem to two issues. When I had all my filters changed it appeared the inline water separator filter outside and underneath was not changed as required. The water filters come in a set of two, upper/lower. Apparently a lazy dealership in Florida when I had my 30K checkup. The mechanic that found the clogged faulty valve took out the lower water filter and opened it up and it was a mess. At the time I had 34,000 on the truck and I agreed with the mechanic that the lower filter was never changed at the 30K. Note to all, get a permanent marker and date the filters, then you have a case. Second problem, real crappy diesel fuel.

Koho, AKA: Dave
2008 F-350 Dully, 4X4, Crew Cab, Long Bed, 6.4
2002 F-250 4X4, Crew Cab, Short Bed, V-10 Loyal Ford Customer, buy American!

[senix]

Originally Posted by koho

Had the same problem. My dealer in New York disasembled the drain valve and it was clogged with what apperaed to be a very fine sawdust. Dealer replaced the valve and contributed the problem to two issues. When I had all my filters changed it appeared the inline water separator filter outside and underneath was not changed as required. The water filters come in a set of two, upper/lower. Apparently a lazy dealership in Florida when I had my 30K checkup. The mechanic that found the clogged faulty valve took out the lower water filter and opened it up and it was a mess. At the time I had 34,000 on the truck and I agreed with the mechanic that the lower filter was never changed at the 30K. Note to all, get a permanent marker and date the filters, then you have a case. Second problem, real crappy diesel fuel.

Koho, AKA: Dave
2008 F-350 Dully, 4X4, Crew Cab, Long Bed, 6.4
2002 F-250 4X4, Crew Cab, Short Bed, V-10 Loyal Ford Customer, buy American!

I would decrease the interval to 10K if you are running crappy fuel, otherwise the interval is a max of 20K

[2x6 bulldog]

I opened my drain valve and no flow. I cranked the engine and shut right down. Great flow now. I then changed the filters.