2015 F350 King Ranch, 112k miles. Bought used this August, no issues with it so far except the cruise doesn’t work. Appointment with dealer to have that checked out next week.

This weekend I’m 4 hours from home and traveling in heavy rain. Friday evening I stop and fuel up and fill up the DEF tank. High volume truck stop, no chance that I mixed up the DEF and fuel.

Less than a mile down the road, water in fuel light comes on. Less than 5 miles away from where I’m staying so went on there and shut it down.

Yesterday AM, drained the water separator. No water, not even a few drops. We drove it around some yesterday to see if the warning would clear. It did not, and the “Decreased Engine Power” warning came on midway through the day.

Last night we disconnected the battery and let it sit overnight. Drained the water separator again this morning. Again nothing except diesel. Reconnected battery and now have the wrench light in addition to the other two-it seems we get a new warning light each day.

Dealers are closed here with the holiday. It is under a warranty I purchased when I bought the truck this summer, but I’m still 4 hours from home. Truck still runs and drives completely normally, hasn’t made any odd sounds or run rough, etc.

I’m assuming it’s likely the sensor, filter, or something similar?

Given that it’s running normally, is it likely okay to drive home tomorrow and take to the dealer next week or do I need to leave it here and figure out alternate means of transportation home? I have friends here who can get it to a dealer locally if necessary but I’m not familiar with the dealers here, and have a great one at home.

 

Can you scan it to see what the codes are? Also, maybe call the station where you got fuel and question them about the fuel. When is the last time the fuel filters were changed? Is everything still stock? If you still have a warranty I might try to leave it be and have it looked out... the fuel system can cause a lot of very big problems...

 

Thank you! All stock, all filters changed 3 months ago. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to pull the codes myself. Took it to an O’Reilly’s and they said their scanner couldn’t see any codes, which was confusing.

BUT, I checked the sensor this afternoon and wiggled it around and pushed it back in to make sure there was a good connection. I couldn’t feel that it was loose but all of the warning lights have now completely cleared.

Now not sure if I’m more annoyed or relieved that that seems to be all it was, lol.

Will still have the dealer check everything out next week.

 

always carry a set of fuel filters on board.

With what you said, i would have changed the filters to be sure all was ok. In the end it appears to be a bad sensor.

When you drain the separator in these case, let the fuel you drained sit a bit and see if any water rises.

 

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the water will settle to the bottom.....

 

yeah that's right, if there's any water it will settle to the bottom

 

oops, I stand corrected. At any rate you should see the difference if there is any water in there.

 

Glad it's just a sensor probably because if it wasn't... bad things man, bad things.

You can buy a new WIF sensor here and other 6.7 Powerstroke fuel related stuff as well.

https://www.dieselfiltersonline.com/...rs-trucks.html

Just FYI.

 

There's been reports of water in the fuel light after the vehicle was driven in heavy rain and the owner found the connector disconnected from the fuel filter connector exposing the contacts to the rain. If your connector is connected, I would disconnect it and see if there's any moisture inside the connector assembly and dry if required.

 

Yeah I had the sensor go bad in my 12. I simple cleaned it and backed it with silicone. Its far better to have the sensor go.

 

My experience so far. My 6.0 (250,000 miles) would lose power and go to idle while driving. When I took my foot off the fuel and and then re-applied truck ran fine until the next event. I suspected a TPS issue, and still do. At 70 years old there are many things I can no longer do myself. I took it to my technician. The only code he got was for a slight cylinder imbalance which would not cause the issue I'm having. It took him awhile to duplicate the problem. His continued diagnosis lead him to suspected a fan clutch issue. He unplugged the fan clutch harness and the problem went away. Fan clutch has been replaced. I have asked him to keep the truck and drive for several days to confirm the issue is repaired. I'm crossing my fingers and will update if this truly fixed the issue.

 

This is what I suspect to be the case. With the filter just recently being replaced, the connection may not be as water tight as it should be and it will trigger exactly what you saw.

If the WIF is not cleared, the PCM gradually will go into limp mode to help prevent damage (though if water is indeed in the fuel system, goodbye CP4). It is programmed that way to reduce the chance of water getting past both filter, since its already past one, and getting into the HPF system and causing major damage to the injectors.

Spray some WD-40 on it and reseat it.