I purchased my truck 6/1/2009 and started off for the first few months draining my seperator but got nothing. After a while I stopped doing it altogether. I did replace the fuel filters at 20k miles.

In march/april of 2010 I started getting the "fuel water seperator" light. I would drain but nothing. Went on a camp trip on flat and got nothing but fuel.

In may I took the truck in and they replaced the sensors thinking it was corroded. Message goes away for a week and started back up.

I then dropped the truck off early june on a tuesday and needing the truck by thursday to pull my boat home and ready for a week in the FL keys.. I had a/c issue as well. Truck sat until thrusday noon and all they did was replace the EATC. I got my truck and fuel issue not fixed.

I take it in this week to get it resolved and they had to replace the whole housing and a new sensor. Seems like this has fixed my problem. Dealer said the housing and everything was corroded. I am sure this was due to me not draining the water.

I have learned that to drain the fuel water seperator the thruck has to be on "LEVEL" ground or the front end sloped downwards. My driveway slopes a little and when I pull in the front end is sloping up. I would drain but nothing. I had backed the truck in to unload the bed from the keys. Drained the fuel and it flowed.

Luckily I was covered under the 3yr/36k mile warranty eventhough it was 2 months out. I had addressed the issue during warranty so they covered it and dealer sure let me know how they were so KIND to extend it. I rebutted they had not fixed it while still in warranty. MY truck has 34k miles and is 3 yrs and 2 months old

 

I would change filters around 10K if I were you. glad you got it fixed.

Sounds like you had water if it was corroded.

 

I had the light come on, and I tried to drain the water and got nothing. I took the gas cap off and there so flows. It may have been just fuel, but I let it run for about 60 seconds and no problem with the light since. However I looked in the bowl that I drained it in, and you can see what was water and what was not. It has a small amount, but that could have been enough to trigger the light, who knows.

 

Ever change your fuel filters? Just curious. You want to change them at 10K intervals.

 

Senix is right. Ford redesigned the fuel filters because of water getting by. Get the updated ones.

 

So what you're saying is the front end needs to be higher than the rear when draining or the truck needs to be on level ground.

 

I think he's saying that the truck has to be level, or the rear higher than the front. Meaining if you have a typical suburbia driveway you're better off to back it in for draining as opposed to pulling in front first, so that the rear is higher than the front.

I tried draining mine with the truck on an incline and all I got were a few drops of diesel. I've got new filters on the way, when I change them I plan to have the truck on a bit of a decline.