Rough running, possible water problem?

[mtltemplar]

Hey all, just joined this forum, this is my first posting. I bought an 05 about 3 months ago, I've been working through fixing all the random issues from the previous owner... Just when I seemed to have it all straightened out, yah...

So, first off, this past week and a half, every time I go to fill up, I can put in about .25 of gas at a time before the pump cuts off like the tank is full (it is empty). I wondered if maybe someone stuffed something into my fill tube, so Saturday morning I took the rubber hose off and checked everything and the lines are clear to the tank and that 'check valve' or whatever right at the tank wall where the hose connects seem to be operating okay (I can move it, it isn't stuck). So I put it all back together, and I assume this means it's the tank vent check valve/ball that lets the air out of the tank when putting gas in, must be stuck or something. Looked around on this forum saw that someone mentioned getting the tank completely full and then trying to slosh it around to get it to release that, but on Saturday it took me 40 minutes to fill it to 1/2 tank of gas, so any other ideas on what to do/check would be appreciated. I only mention all this in case it is related to the next *REAL* problem.

Sunday morning I had to go into work for an outage caused by the weather here recently in NM. It was pouring cats and dogs out and there were multiple standing water pools. Right after slowly driving through one that must have been 6" deep (at least an inch over the curb) the truck started to run kinda rough, bucking here and there, so I assumed I had taken on some moisture/water and babied it to work which by the time I got there (about 15 miles later) the truck seemed to be okay again. It started a little rough leaving work but seemed to only miss every occasionally Sunday morning. While driving it to work yesterday, and especially on the way home, it has gotten WAY worse. It almost feels like it's missing, and pretty badly, actually kicking the truck pretty hard, sometimes making it shift during the actually 'missing', some of it was bad enough I actually saw a 500rpm drop/surge during it. Under 3/4 throttle, it runs pretty smooth with the occasional slight miss, cruising/coasting/up to 1/2 throttle it is HORRIFIC! Any thoughts? Could I have gotten more water in there than I thought and have bent rods? Could it be coincidence and just bad gas? Is it related to too much tank pressure since it cannot vent?

Thanks everyone! Absolutely LOVE the truck otherwise!
Matt

 

[VPRPWRD]

Welcome to the VTCoA! Do you have a check engine light on? If so what codes are present? The fuel fill issue is most likely related to the evap system, some kind of blockage or a valve not opening.

 

[oldcolt]

Check your plug wires for damage. Could be the ol' cam/crank sensor issue.:dontknow:

 

[VENOMOUS1 RACING]

Yup what's condition of plugs and wires? Wires that are bad/deteriorated will arc very easily in moisture rich conditions. Do you have a tuner/SCT? Read codes from there as often our PCM will not show all codes on dash for some reason I've learned. Bad gas sounds very plausible too.

 

[mtltemplar]

So there is no CEL, but I do have a code reader/clearer I haven't tried hooking up yet, I assume(d) that it wouldn't find any codes if there is no CEL?

I will check the wires tonight and make sure there is no moisture on them or pooled in the plug reservoirs, maybe blow it all off with some WD40... The plugs themselves are brand new, I put in the pulstars right when I got the truck, the wires seemed to be in good condition at the time though. Maybe I just had water splash up a ways under there, it sounded like it was hitting the front bumper cover, so maybe it was high enough to get kicked all around in the engine compartment by the fan? It has been raining every day straight here for over a week and its humid as heck out, so maybe it isn't drying out.

On the evap thing, what do I check? Can I just put a vacuum line on the tank side and bypass the line/tube going up to the filler tube with no ill effect? I assume it has a check valve on that for a reason...

Thanks!

 

[mtltemplar]

Update

So, I have no engine codes.

I put in some injector cleaner which helped with the rough running some (so possibly bad gas), also disconnected the battery for 2 hours and now it seems to be almost perfect again, from that aspect. It still occasionally misses but it is nowhere near as bad as before.

On to the filling problem, took the line off from that module on top of the tank that runs up to the smaller 'pipe' on the filler neck and that didn't help at all with the filling, so the check 'ball' must be stuck. I am going to spend the 1.5 hours tomorrow at the gas station to fill up the tank all the way (with some injector cleaner as well...) and then go drive it around wildly ( ) and try to slosh the gas in the tank to see if it will release that check ball. Any other suggestions? I am SO not looking forward to taking that long to fill the tank (it took 40 minutes to put in 1/2 tank of gas the other day), maybe I'll bring a lawn chair and a Tom Clancy with me to keep me occupied...

 

[Chewbacca]

I sometimes have the same problem when filling up. But it goes away if I aim the nozzle differently, or pull it out a little! Maybe you could get one of those 5 gallon (or larger) tanks, fill that up, then pour it in the truck?

 

[mtltemplar]

Reply

I wish to god that it were that easy... I have tried all angles, barely in, all the way out, gave it the lovin... Nothing helped. Already tried a gas container as well, but it still overflows and I have to stop pouring. There is nothing stuck in the fill hose, already took that off and checked. The screen/whatever at the inlet side of the tank moves freely (checked it with my finger while the hose was off), it seems that something is just keeping the air from escaping the tank while filling like it is supposed to do, so if you put too much in at a time, there is no place for the air to go and it backs up (like every 25c with gas being 3.60/gal). If I keep the pump handle on a trickle, it fills fine but just takes eternities per gallon...

 

[Rcboy1972]

To be honest sounds to me like restriction in the filler tube has been know for rubber hoses to be used by fuel thief which gets stuck in the filler neck when they try pull it back out and as is rubber it swells with fuel and restrict flow enough to back up a petrol station pump to cut off. Take off filler tube and check it visually

 

[SRT10VENOMOUS]

Mine use to do that, I forgett what fixed it " back in 2005" but I know on my new car and sometimes the truck it happens, if I invert the pump and run it upside down it seams to pump no problem, Flit it back over normally and it will only click off with out slow trickle..

 

[Slitherbeast]

I believe the fix was to slowly and patiently fill the tank until it is completely full! The ballcheck seems to get stuck on the bottom and won't allow fuel past it. Making it float back up should release it. Just a thought! If that don't work you will need to replace that part of the fill line