Hit a deer, now engine is running lean

[zach1990]

I've been in talk with a mechanic I work with at the FD about the tests y'all mentioned so those are in the work if the problem resurfaces

 

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[txab]

 

Really? Think about it, you drive your truck for x number of years, and x number of miles. Over that time if you get your fuel from mostly the same station and they have a dirty underground tank, you may get dirt in the fuel. It sinks to the bottom of the tank where it gets to sit for the vast majority of the day. You vehicle is parked more than driven, so the fuel has lots of static time for contaminents to sink to bottom of tank. After a while it ends up like one of those instant hot chocolate. A layer of sludge on the bottom. One day you are driving along, not a care in the world, then bambi decides she really misses her mother so she ends it all by stepping into traffic. A vehicle something as large as a deer will feel it (not as much as bambi, but it still jars the truck) and the sudden shock to the vehicle will cause a violent movement of fuel in the tank(unless it is full) and that mini tidal wave stirs up the fuel in the tank, and the crap in the bottom. Truck is still running, so fuel pump pulls in the now cloudy fuel, and off the fuel filter it goes.

 

Not sure why you don't understand the logic of it. Before you offer that the sock on the fuel pickup will catch the stuff, if it did, why would you need a fuel filter? And if the gas station does not pump dirty fuel, why do we have fuel filters? Obviously dirt gets into the fuel tank.

 

For some reason this reminds me of when I worked in a Firestone Auto Garage. We used Kralinator filters. A week did not go by without someone complaining that they just changed the air filter x number of miles ago, they must be crap filters if they plug up so soon.

 

 

Or as he rolled over the deer, it impacted the tank bottom, forced the tank bottom into the pump/sock pick-up. Damaged it allowing tank debris to be pushed through the system. Which is why I, as well as others suggested checking fuel pressure and flow.

 

I've seen a fuel pump fail after severe tank impact. These plastic tanks can take a good hit and show no damage since they are able to pop back to the original shape.

 

Who knows....... And now his immediate problem is solved

[zach1990]

95 miles and still fine so I'm calling it good. Thanks for the help fellas

 

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[zach1990]

Well so much for that.... got a po171 yesterday and about an hour ago I got in it and cranked it and noticed it was idling funny. Gave it some gas and everything died even the electrical. I was sitting there a minute when I noticed that there was this strange clicking noise coming from under the dash. Could not locate the source. Played with the battery cables a bit and when I disconnected and reconnected the battery everything came back on. It then cranked but was idling bad still so I walked over to the engine bay and noticed it was sucking the hell out of air through the CAI. It was very loud till it stopped after about 30 seconds. Idle never smoothed out. If I can get it to work tomorrow I'll play with it some more and report back with further.

 

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[zach1990]

And its being bipolar running just fine today so Idk...

 

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[EX-F150 owner]

Did you see what was clogging the filter up? Could be clogged again. Maybe the filter on the pump is bad and debris from the tank is getting by.

 

Also have you checked the MAF sensor? I had this same issue with my Lesabre and cleaning it worked for a while. When the codes came back I just replaced it and no more issue.

[zach1990]

Sensor is clean and the filter I replaced was full of black sludge. Just nasty nasty sludge. I thought about that but it doesn't explain the complete loss of all power until I reconnected the battery after checking the terminals... Idk

 

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