listen up because this could easily happen to you. last night we were in southwest wyoming on a gravel road, in this area its difficult to know exactly where you are despite us having excellent maps and naturally no cell phone coverage. we thought we were about 8 miles off the highway. its full dark and we are tired and hungry from a full day of hunting. lights on the dash come on and truck says reduced power in the message center. we roll to a stop, truck will not restart. I get an oil light on the dash so my first thought was an oil sensor or something being bad. my first thought was to disconnect the battery and see if we could reset whatever the problem. We get looking around under the truck and with flashlights and see diesel pouring out. turns out the yellow thingy on the fuel and water seperator must have somehow been hit by a rock because the valve was broken in pieces. for a few moments I thought we were going to spend an unplanned night in the high desert. we managed to use copious amounts of duct tape to slow the leak to a drip and nursed the truck to rock springs and ultimately home.

my personal feelings is this is about the most aweful place I can imagine mounting the filter unit!!!!!!! the valve doesn't even face rearward. I was not 4 wheeling the truck or even driving on that nasty of dirt road. there are skid plates there to protect the t case and trans but NOTHING for that little plastic unit that if broken can leave you on the side of the road. all the dodges I used to run had that unit mounted right near the side of the engine. no way could a rock be kicked up by a tire and wack the thing. we are not certain thats what happened. but we know all that is left is broke off pieces of the yellow valve stuck in the assembly. nothing else could have happend. infact come to think of it the unit is mounted almost in the center of the truck on the drivers frame rail, ummmm thats more likely to be hit by high centering than the t case, so basically I don't see much value in the factory skid plates. I plan to mount some heavy metal up under my truck in the future to protect the filter assembly. ford, what were you thinking???

this is the second time in 10 mos I have had a problem with my truck in remote country. I am starting to question the reliability of the truck in these situations. the first time did leave me stranded fortunately near a nice farmers house. the question I have is any idea on if this should be something ford will cover for warranty. if I can get the part out and its local and not priced too much I will just fix it myself. or are they going to say its damaged because I hit something?? either way its a poor design!!!!!

BTW thanks epic for the video on replacing those filters, that will make it way easy for me to replace those when I do it. one thing I noticed is your under hood filter had 3 ports on it and the new one only had 2, oh yeah and did you get those filters from ford and if so what was a ruff ball park on the price??

 

That sucks man. Dieselfiltersonline had the filters for 47.00 I believe for the set. Hope the parts in stock.

 

Sorry to hear about this but I'm glad you made it out okay.

That said, as I drained mine the other day I was thinking that it was a little vulnerable where it was mounted.

 

Maybe we need a shield. Sounds like a business opportunity for some industrious person.

 

That three port filter comes from the factory only as far as I can tell. Probably used to charge the fuel system for the initial start-up.

Nothing personal cowboy, but I'm starting to question your luck. Better disable the gps on the truck so whoever is tracking you can't sabotage you when you're remote...

 

Wow...second time in less than a year...

The only immediate thought that comes to mind is that 99% of people who own a super duty pickup truck are looking for easy servicability rather than off-road capability. These are big, heavy trucks that are most frequently used to tow heavy things down the highway. Sure they are supposed to be capable off-road, but no more so than any run-of-the-mill SUV would be.

I remember nearly a year ago someone was up in arms over the oil filter hanging down next to the oil pan and having it get punctured. The simple truth is that damage to underbody components from foreign objects is rare at best unless the truck is taken to a place where most people wouldn't. Really crappy thing to have happen though.

It sounds as if those interested in taking their truck off-road on anything more than a gravel road should have some extra protection added. Nothing that the vast majority of owners would use, but you certainly have a reason.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I've heard of the oil filter getting poked before too. I will have to keep this in mind for this winter. We'll be in the appalachians again for a snowboarding trip. Last time I went we drove through some forest roads and crossed 2 streams. That would be a rough place to need a tow out of...

Another "improvement" to add to the list... Lets see - steering stabilizers, new shocks, shields for the oil filter and frame rail fuel filter.... what else do I need to do? Oh yea - the door seal mod...

 

Cowboy, glad you are ok. I agree about the placement/valve on the fuel filter, it's nuts! I got so use to the Cummins as well. Thanks for telling your story.

 

actually an oil filter hanging down wouldn't concern me near as much. because at least that is metal and unless it got hit by the right thing it would likely just dent it. this on the other hand a rock directed at it is going to potentially break it and cause fuel spillage. I must admit to not knowing the unit was down there. I think I have only messed with a seperator on any of my trucks once in 15 years, my old 93 cummins had a water in fuel message, drained some out and didn't worry about it after that. my other trucks I have never messed with the seperators on them.

I am not particularly ruff on my trucks, this was just a dirt road and not a bad one at that, one I could maintain at least 40 mph on. I am sure all of us have heard a rock flip up under a vehicle pretty hard, while this was likely a rare fluke, I think the location of the unit is very bad. its a terrible spot especially if you wanna do some serious 4x4 things. what if a guy turned around and ran over some sage brush in the process something like that could break that part too.

 

thanks for the heads up. Haven't thought about that before. Another reason to put some good for everything duct (duck) tape in the truck. Glad you made it out safely!

 

Bummer luck Cowboy. Glad you were able to McGyver your way out of trouble. I agree about the seperator being in harms way. Seems to me it should have been tucked up in the frame rail a little more to protect it. Thanks for the heads up.

BTW, did you fill your tag?

 

Cummins, I just got home from a trip through the area you were in, all the county roads and such are just what you mentioned, gravel with about 1" rock size but pretty smooth. They go on for ever, I made the decision to get flaps from all the rocks my 20" Michelins had banging the belly. The kid and I are going to fab something up asap.

Glad you got home ok. Funny all I had on my mind was Ricks HPFP issue, crud now this too!
Mark

 

I definitely think this could use some more protection. My truck says superduty fx4 off road. I didn't get that so I could park in a grass parking lot at church. Between this and tha plastic oil pan.... People could have some major issues.

 

The oil pan I feel is fine but it does seem we will need to find a way to protect the DFCM.
Decent mud flaps probably help.
I haven't been concerned much about terrain as I figure something else will hit the ground first but I never thought about a rock hitting that unit.

 

Because of this thread, I ordered a spare fuel filter and am going to keep it in the truck.

I am also going to fab up a protector.

I don't drive on rocky roads, but would like the added protection of a cover or protector anyways.