Hey - so pretty hefty rainfall around where we live today. Lots of flooding and big puddles around the lovely(!) Grantham area.

I'm at work in London....wife calls to say she was going slowly (....) through a large puddle and got a 'water in fuel' type warning message.

Car was driving normally in every way and I think when she later re-started the light had gone off and the car is driving normally. It's 4.4 TDV8.

Anyone provide any info on this warning light (yeah, I realise it might be obvious) and the sort of things that might trigger it and if there's anything to worry about?

Cheers

Tom

The warning is for water in the fuel filter, so I would suspect it was a random short circuit that caused the light to come on when she went through the lake

^^^^you would hope so, getting water in the fuel in a car is quite tricky nowadays, I get the problem often with my plant as the lads are not too hot at filling them from jerry cans without a bit od h2o getting in as well.

usually collects at the bottom of the fuel filter, on the plant there is a screw to bleed off the water not sure on the rr though. There is nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer😜😜
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Tomw2000 wrote:

I'm at work in London....wife calls to say she was going slowly (....) through a large puddle and got a 'water in fuel' type warning message.

Wading depth is supposed to be 700mm, so you might want to ask Mrs Tom how deep that puddle really was

as 47p2 says, probably just a short. If you had water in the fuel system, I'm sure you would have noticed by now. The engine would not like that one bit and start to cough.

Maybe 'your lads' are topping up Mrs Tom's FFRR

Maybe check for water in the filter anyway. My mother got stuck one day because the petrol station attendant didn't close the tank properly and on her car that meant rainwater going straight into the tank (petrol). My dad spent hours draining the water out (he didn't want to take the tank out so first drained it and then used a cloth to dry it). Who knows maybe something similar happened to your car as well.............. MY 2010 5.0 SC Galway green and sand interior!!
Have the Faultmate MSV2 Extreme to be tinkering with the settings etc. !!

Worth mentioning the top tip if there is a little water in the fuel - pour a couple of litres of meths (methylated spirits) into the fuel tank. The meths will absorb the water and happily pass through the injectors and burn. I've done this is the past on diesel and petrol engines (useful on narrowboats) and it always seems to do the trick.

Simes is right, that works a treat. Also using biodiesel in larger amounts dries the fuel system out. MY 2010 5.0 SC Galway green and sand interior!!
Have the Faultmate MSV2 Extreme to be tinkering with the settings etc. !!

If a couple of litres of petrol miss fuelled in to a common rail diesel can be extremely damaging what is meths going to do ?
better to use the correct product like Fuel Set to harmlessly emulsify any water . Fitting Racor fuel/water separators might be a stage too far though. 2008 MY Supercharged
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It's wet round near me and got the same message today. Pressed 'ok to clear' and it went off. Came back a few minutes later but now gone completely. Any cause for concern do we think?

Also, love how the warning message says 'see handbook' but there is nothing in the handbook which says anything about 'water in fuel.'

If you have recently fuelled up it could also be that the filling station has got water into their tanks and you have fuelled rain water that has leaked into the station's fuel tanks................. This happened last year at our local Morrison's 2018 Mini Countryman Cooper S E All4 PHEV in Melting Silver - it’s whisper quiet in EV and polluter modes

Same here on my 4.4 TDV8 a few months back.

My route to work is over a moorland road that often turns into a stream for a couple of hundred yards. After I drove along / through it the water in fuel message appeared only to magically disappear.

Referred to Owner's manual as directed and couldn't find any reference to it either.

I haven't had any problems since.

Please do not put Meths into your fuel tank. Any water whether mixed with meths or not running through a common rail diesel is asking for big trouble. Thats why they have a water trap and warning light so we do not run water through the motor. Most likely an electrical fault with your car.

Go and do a wee experiment.
Get a clear bottle put a bit of water in then a lot of diesel and then a bit of meths. Shake it all up let it sit and see what happens. If it reverts back to seperate layers add a bit more meths and repeat. You can keep repeating this if need be. If it all blends after a few hours sitting then you might be able to safely use it.

But I wouldn't.

Adrian VW Amarok 2014 Highline auto

Seems to be only latest 2011/12 cars.......