psychomech
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• holly springs, NC, USA |
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• Registered on 3/5/2011 |
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• 1 post |
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 Posted:3/5/2011 14:01 |
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2002 excursion 7.3 PS, victim of nesting/hungry squirrel.
Wife called the other day complaining of a check engine light along with a low fuel indicator (light and needle). vehicle was running fine and fuel had been added a day or so earlier. Verified the warning lights the following day and opened the hood to take a look around. Found a tree limb on top of the block but at closer look determined it was a nest based on the smaller limbs. Had a hunch might be the issue so I decided to take pictures( for insurance if needed) of the nest as I removed the debris. As suspected I found that the squirrel had decided to sharpen his chompers on the wiring harness and some vacuum lines connected to a sensor at the inlet outlet of the intake.
Did a little reading in the manual determined the sensor was one of the many environmental controls and was causing the service engine light to come on. Did a little quick repair of the vacuum lines and made a makeshift connector with a butt splice ( squirrel knawed the wire up against the connector and couldn't use) and was successful in clearing the engine service light. One problem down, fuel light to go. Here is a decscription of the low fuel indicators.
Light is illuminated, guage is below empty, and the fuel calculator on the upper console indicates 390 miles to go. Disconnected battery to clear CPU (maybe). After reconnecting battery, I energized the system with the key and watched the fuel guage raise above the empty mark to full and then return to just above empty (low fuel light remained on), started vehicle and needle sunk below empty as before. decided to confirm fuel buy adding. After refueling I reset the fuel calculator to determine if it would recognize the additional fuel and without suprise it did not. The calculator will reduce by millage driven though. I have not been able to find any additional squirrel damage but would like to know if there is anything located near the fuel filter that could effect the fuel sensors as described or is this coincidental to the squirrel issue?
sarge |
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