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My brother in laws excusrsion has an intermittent no start problem. we have finally isolated it down to when it's less than 1/4 tank full it simply wont run. it will run rough for a while but then get to a point where it just wont start at all. fuel pump is engagning (pump is only 2 weeks old) but no fuel in the bowl. He thinks its sucking air inside the tank. I told him to do the in tank mods and see if that cured his problem. What say you all?
Does his guage work properly? I wouldn't think you could suck enough air at 1/4 tank to empty the fuel bowl. Maybe he's got some junk floating around in there that plugs the pick up screen when the tank is low.
Either way dropping the tank seems like a good idea.
thats exactly what i said. And what ford said three weeks ago when he took it in and they charged him $1K to replace his fuel pump and "clean out his tank!" anyway, he got it back and two days later it was doing the same thing. His truck passed the "buzz" test so he does not think its the UVC harness clips, i however have not ruled those out yet. I told him also to ohm out all GPR and GPs and check fuse #105 for fuel bowl heater. This is truly puzzling but on a good note he paid for the work at ford with his american express so they have taken the charge off as he begins his dispute with ford motor company now.
Has he verified the correct gauge reading? If he fills up at 1/4 tank can he add the approximate number of gallons to equal tank capacity?
How well does he trust the dealer? I've had some run ins with dealer techs that were worthless in my opinion. Has he crawled underneath to see if it looks like the tank has been dropped? They may have just tried to vacuum it out. I also wonder if they checked the screen on the pick up tube.
I guess the other remote possibility is there is a hole in the pick up tube that will suck air when the fuel gets to a certain point.
Sounds like a good idea. If he's going to take the line off the back of the fuel pump maybe consider shooting a blast of compressed air back down into the tank to clear any obstructions.
it sounds like either the gauge sending unit is not calibrated properly, or the pickup tube in the tank is cracked letting air in at 1/4 tank. if it has a 30 gallon tank, and takes 29 gallons when it reads 1/4 tank, the sender needs adjusting.
if it only takes 22 gallons, the pickup tube is bad.