TrackSprinter
2016 Motovan Boondocker
Went camping for Thanksgiving. Was able to button up most of the projects I had going on to make my TrackSprinter camping friendly i.e. insulation throughout, cover panels, etc.. Had a great time! It rained two of the three days. Discovered condensation in the driver side headlight (phuck) most likely from my HID hack job mod.
My point is, I got the WIF warning the next time I went to drive it after coming home. Not sure if the "perfect storm" weather conditions had anything to do with it, or if I got water from that Shell Station in Orange County on the way up to the mountains. The van has 21k miles, and I don't know if the fuel filter had ever been changed previous, as I am the second owner. I do know that the spare filter the original owner included with the purchase was the WRONG one so that may be an indicator if it was ever changed. I ordered a filter before pulling the original and wouldn't you know, I ALSO got the wrong one. GDit Mercedes!! Seems like 50 iterations of filters...
I got the dash light in the morning upon start up. And I will never again dismiss another dash warning until I understand what it actually means. Drove it 12miles to work, and went immediately for Google. Immediately freaked out when I found this thread during a search. Had it towed home.
Changed the filter. Used a little compressed air to evacuate the old filter into a container, waited awhile for the contents to settle while I changed the filter. If there was any water, it was microscopic and undetectable by the naked eye. Started it up, and no dash warning. I have driven it approximately 75miles since with no dash warning (yet).
To be prepared for a "next time" I believe I will invest in a rotary fuel transfer pump, and also a pre-fuel filter assembly as seen in another thread here. Unless your van is driven every day, there will be a good amount of gook and/or a small amount of water in your tank accumulated. Just depends on what it takes to get that gook/water into your fuel line I guess??
My point is, I got the WIF warning the next time I went to drive it after coming home. Not sure if the "perfect storm" weather conditions had anything to do with it, or if I got water from that Shell Station in Orange County on the way up to the mountains. The van has 21k miles, and I don't know if the fuel filter had ever been changed previous, as I am the second owner. I do know that the spare filter the original owner included with the purchase was the WRONG one so that may be an indicator if it was ever changed. I ordered a filter before pulling the original and wouldn't you know, I ALSO got the wrong one. GDit Mercedes!! Seems like 50 iterations of filters...
I got the dash light in the morning upon start up. And I will never again dismiss another dash warning until I understand what it actually means. Drove it 12miles to work, and went immediately for Google. Immediately freaked out when I found this thread during a search. Had it towed home.
Changed the filter. Used a little compressed air to evacuate the old filter into a container, waited awhile for the contents to settle while I changed the filter. If there was any water, it was microscopic and undetectable by the naked eye. Started it up, and no dash warning. I have driven it approximately 75miles since with no dash warning (yet).
To be prepared for a "next time" I believe I will invest in a rotary fuel transfer pump, and also a pre-fuel filter assembly as seen in another thread here. Unless your van is driven every day, there will be a good amount of gook and/or a small amount of water in your tank accumulated. Just depends on what it takes to get that gook/water into your fuel line I guess??