407 HDI water in diesel

Car was shuddering when idling and acting a bit odd at other times.
The service people found that the cause was water contamination of the
fuel. Quite expensive to fix - replacing fuel filter and removing tank
so all fuel could be purged.

No recent posts on this topic but I found an old 405 one about the
"water in fuel' light coming on (which, apparently, meant that the
fuel filter needed draining).

No warning lights were triggered by my problem.

 

What would bother me is that there's no mention of what they've done to
prevent further water ingress. It got in before, it will get in again. The
usual (but not the only) suspect would be the seal around the filler cap.
Another issue is that it's not just the water that's a problem, bacteria
breed in the water and create MGS.

I'm not familiar with the 407, does it have the light you mention?

And does the filter have a capability for draining water? Not usual in cars
rather than trucks I know. There may be a case for changing the filter
between services as a preventative measure.

Steve

(MGS = Manky Green Stuff.)

 

Of course the water could have been put in with the fuel. It wouldn't be
the first time that a filling station let its tank get too low and the water
that has separated out at the bottom got mixed into the new fuel. We had a
spate of it around here a few years ago. Can't remember which station it
was but it was one of the supermarket chains. If this is the case, and you
can identify the station, if other people have had the same problem you
should be able to claim compensation.

 

Hi,

Yes, or a car's tank filled just after the gas station's refilling.

There may be a plage of water in fuel here in the next weeks.

Regards,

 

The only way the water could have got in is with the last fuel refill.
I plan to pursue the matter and will report results.

 

The repair cost about $A500 - mainly labour to remove and clean the
tank.

 

This another example of 'progress'. Fuel tanks once had a drain plug
in the bottom. Up to my 505 I understood virtually every element of my
vehicle. No longer. On the other hand they do seem to get more trouble-
free (fingers crossed!)

 

The repair cost about $A500 - mainly labour to remove and clean the
tank.

Ah, that $A500 means you're in upside-downia, right? I was assuming you were
in UK where we have had biblical quantities of rain and snow of late.

Assuming it's been fairly dry for you, then the water is indeed likely to
have got in during refilling. But that brings another point. For water to
have been in the fuel in sufficient quantity to do this[1], there must also
have been many other cases of problems after refuelling at this filling
station. Have you heard of any? Anything in the local press? Does your
garage know of other cases?

If you try to pursue the matter and there's only one case, they're going to
say it's your car, not their fuel.

[1] Because there are several traps and filters which would all have to be
full of water before any could get in your tank, assuming a reasonably
modern system.

Steve