Diesel dissolving tank sender unit? Any idea how fuel can do this?

colino

Are you sure about the cars history? I've never seen anything like that and I wonder if it has suffered physical, external damage (fire perhaps) and is a reused part in a rebuilt car.

Bufger

I'm a fuel systems engineer for a large manufacturer and i can honestly say ive never seen anything like that on a fuel delivery module. Ive had plenty of blocked sock filters, a couple of burnt out pins on top of the FDM flange and a few cracked units but never a disolved one!

I would try ringing the supplier of that part (it would be continental or siemens i expect) and see if they have ever had anything similar. Let them know you're not claiming under warranty you're just interested and they may talk to you.

The_Pedant

Thanks for the replies everyone.
Before the tank was taken out, my initial thoughts were waxy residues etc, and possibly bacterial/fungal growth (I'd read about it occurring in fuel storage tanks).

I can see a few of the possibilities mentioned being plausible. I think I can imagine the home-brew idea causing the residues and damage seen. The fuel additive I could picture, but without a bit more of an idea what goes into them, I'm not sure it would cause the limescale like residues. The red diesel could also be a possibility. I had a quick poke around but from the info I saw, I might have expected damage to occur to a couple of other components ... again, I don't know enough to decide further.

As for the car itself ... an engineering company reportedly owned the car for the 14 months previous. No sign of any damage, all original panels etc.

Ford have taken some pictures themselves, but as mentioned it does not appear to be something encountered before (at least locally).

For now, the tank's been steam cleaned & a new sender unit fitted. Touch wood ... the car appears to be running ok (although I have concerns about any other damage to the rest of the fuel system). I've got the sender unit here, and am picking this up with the dealer I got the car from. If I learn anything more I'll let you all know.

Cheers!

snapdragon69

That reddy brown staining suggests it has been in red diesel more than just once.
The dissolving plastic could be acetone, wasn't there a craze of adding this a while back?

Strider590

snapdragon69 wrote: »

That reddy brown staining suggests it has been in red diesel more than just once.
The dissolving plastic could be acetone, wasn't there a craze of adding this a while back?

Acetone is said to increase your MPG, but at the same time acetone does destroy certain type's of plastic, especially acrylics.