Stumbled on a stat about injector failure rates and it shook me

I was reading through some SAE papers last weekend and found out that over 40% of common rail injector failures come from just ONE thing - water in the fuel. Not contamination from the tank, but condensation building up inside the filter housing itself. I checked my own setup and sure enough, the drain valve on my Racor was sitting half open from a bump. Has anyone else pulled a filter apart and found water sitting right where it shouldn't be?

3 comments

3 Comments

gavin_kelly9121d agoMost Upvoted

Damn that's rough. It's crazy how something like a bump on the road can cause that kind of trouble.

the_thomas18d agoMost Upvoted

Nah man, I gotta disagree a bit. A pothole big enough to crack an oil pan is not just a "bump on the road." That thing had to be a straight up crater. I've hit some nasty potholes in my old Civic and the worst I ever got was a bent rim and a flat tire. If your oil pan cracks from one hit, that pothole was probably deep enough to swallow a basketball. Your buddy got unlucky sure, but that's not a normal everyday pothole situation.

cooper.phoenix21d ago

Had a buddy back in high school, hit a pothole on the highway one night. Didn't think much of it, just a bump and a thud. Next morning his car was dead in the driveway, wouldn't start at all. Took it to the shop and the mechanic said the impact cracked his oil pan and the engine seized up from lack of oil. Cost him like three grand to get it fixed, and the pothole wasn't even that big. It's wild how something so small can mess up your whole week.