Water In Gas

[Robb235]

Filled up the tank the other day on my 2012 EX, and a few minutes later while driving, engine got really rough, then died. Could not get it to restart. Got it towed home (luckily I was close) and pulled the fuel line off the fuel rail. Put the fuel line into a mason jar and primed the fuel pump a couple times by turning key on and off again. To my amazement, what came out was grey water. It was not gas. Kept priming the fuel pump until no more water came out and I was getting gas. However what came out was very cloudy, not clear, and did not look like good fresh gas. I reconnected the fuel line to the fuel rail and now I could get it started, but it ran rough. At times it would smooth out, and then after a while run rough again. So I decided to drain the tank by putting a cut up garden hose over the disconnected fuel line, and kept filling up my gas cans until no more gas came out. Siphoned a fresh gallon of gas out of my boat (was filled up with fresh gas the day before, gas looked clear yellow) and poured that into the Civic. Still runs rough and misfires quite a bit.

So at this point I'm thinking I probably need to replace my fuel filter? Perhaps sparkplugs as well? What else do I need to look at replacing here.

TIA

 

[webby]

I would get a bottle of heet at least. You could have some water still in the tank, since gas will float on top of the water. I’d pull your plugs and check them.

You can see how water and gas mix in this review of heet, seafoam and isopropyl alcohol. He also shows how the plugs look.


View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cC4hlcZz5DM

 

[Robb235]

View attachment 66095

I would get a bottle of heet at least. You could have some water still in the tank, since gas will float on top of the water. I’d pull your plugs and check them.

You can see how water and gas mix in this review of heet, seafoam and isopropyl alcohol. He also shows how the plugs look.


View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cC4hlcZz5DM

Yeah, I'm familiar with Heet. I did put a bottle of it in the tank yesterday morning before I went to work. Unfortunately I'm still getting random engine stumbling and misfires, but not all the time. Sometimes it will run fine, then other times it will randomly start misfiring and lose power. If I cut the engine off and let it sit for a few minutes, it seems to go away, or not be as bad. Looking at my OBD scanner, the fuel mixture is leaning out when the misfires and stumbling happens.

I'm leaning towards two theories:

1.) There might be a bunch of sediment/crap in the tank, and as the fuel pump continues to run, the fuel sock is sucking up and collecting more of that debris and choking off fuel to the engine. Cutting the engine off may then be allowing the sediment to fall away from the fuel sock and back to the bottom of the tank.

2.) The fuel pump being exposed to water may have corroded the pump. It might be running fine some times, and then struggle at other times. Turning the engine off may be allowing it to cool back down and run fine again.

Sounds like either way, I need to pull the fuel pump assembly out of the tank and investigate. That's about the only thing I know to do at this point.

 

[Robb235]

Filled up the tank the other day on my 2012 EX, and a few minutes later while driving, engine got really rough, then died. Could not get it to restart. Got it towed home (luckily I was close) and pulled the fuel line off the fuel rail. Put the fuel line into a mason jar and primed the fuel pump a couple times by turning key on and off again. To my amazement, what came out was grey water. It was not gas. Kept priming the fuel pump until no more water came out and I was getting gas. However what came out was very cloudy, not clear, and did not look like good fresh gas. I reconnected the fuel line to the fuel rail and now I could get it started, but it ran rough. At times it would smooth out, and then after a while run rough again. So I decided to drain the tank by putting a cut up garden hose over the disconnected fuel line, and kept filling up my gas cans until no more gas came out. Siphoned a fresh gallon of gas out of my boat (was filled up with fresh gas the day before, gas looked clear yellow) and poured that into the Civic. Still runs rough and misfires quite a bit.

So at this point I'm thinking I probably need to replace my fuel filter? Perhaps sparkplugs as well? What else do I need to look at replacing here.

TIA

 

[Robb235]

Ok, so apparently Heet does absolutely nothing. I put a bottle that supposedly treats 20 gallons into my tank that had around 7 gallons in it. Still ran like crap. When I pulled the fuel pump, I could still see pockets of water at the bottom of the tank. So much for Heet emulsifying the water and dispersing it through the tank of gas. I extracted all of the fuel and let the tank air out over night. Soaked up what little remained this morning and put a few gallons of fresh gas in. Put the fuel pump back in, buttoned everything back up, and everything seems normal now. Have only taken it on a short test drive, but at least now I know for sure all the water is out of the tank.

 

[Robb235]

Update: car has been running great now that all water is confirmed out of the tank. Problem is resolved.

 

[Robb235]

Here’s a tip for anyone who wants to replace just their fuel strainer and not shell out a few hundred bucks for a whole new fuel pump assembly. Maybe it’s common knowledge, but I found this out when I thought a clogged fuel strainer might possibly be my issue.

The factory fuel strainer is molded into a plastic piece that clips into part of your fuel pump assembly. I looked for a replacement piece and found something close. It’s made by Spectra and was in stock at my local AutoZone, part number A125STR. As you can see from the pics, it has an extra circular piece to the right. I took my Dremmel and cut that extra circular piece off, and was then able to reassemble my fuel pump assembly with new fuel strainer.

 

[webby]

Glad to hear it’s working well