sknahsb

Good news the RR Snorkel was not the point of entry for the aforementioned water.
Bad news is that apparently the fuel system is easier to flood with water than a gaping hole into the intake.
I was on my way home from work when I came upon a rather large but innocuous puddle of water in my lane. So I said to myself 'Self, turn the wipers on to full and hit it like it owes you money!' So I did and half way through I lost all power and pulled over to the shoulder to diagnosis the problem. First I checked the snorkel and it was bone dry (+1 for RR) and all other obvious things to no avail. It would crank but would bog down and die immediately.
In comes the tow truck and off to the dealership. The prognosis wasn't looking good after all my research on this lovely forum. Between TPIMs failing, flooded manifolds, and soaked interiors I thought I was up fecal creek with a paddle.
In comes the Jeep tech with the cause (dun dun dun) a failed fuel pump due to contaminated fuel!!! I am at a loss for words, with 5yrs of Mechanical Engineering and 4yrs on a SAE Baja team I still can't come to a valid entry point for said water, especially from a shallow puddle, that would be 100% my fault and not related to a design flaw.

Either way I am out $600 and several hours of my life. Below is the puddle in question with an entry speed of roughly 25mph or in my case 22 knots.

Leasing learned: the badge says Trail Rated not good for 100m.

powrsurg

If you cant hit a puddle like it owes you money then whats the sense of having a jeep. Your an engineer so you're certainly more intuitive than I am but this makes no sense. How about this, when you hit the puddle and your velocity quickly decreased, something got sucked up into the intake. Maybe it was a problem waiting to happen and it just happened then.

I was thinking it could have been your gas cap but I doubt water coming in from there would have found itself to the bottom of the tank that fast.
What about your oil cap? Was that loose? If none of the above, then you must have an opening somewhere in the engine compartment that probably doesnt belong there.

KNowing now what the problem was, would an octane booster had solved your problem?

sknahsb

Per the tech there was absolutely zero water in the engine. All of it was located in the fuel tank. No one has any real idea as to where it entered the system: popular ideas are the filler neck, the point where the fuel lines exit the tank, or some other random location. I can't fathom how that puddle led to the rapid failure of the fuel pump. I also had a 3/4 tank of fuel from Shell and not BP so that somewhat rules out a third party contamination. As for the octane booster I don't believe that would have done anything. I think the majority of the blame rests on some sort of design flaw. It is a 2011 JKU with 20k miles and has seen zero offroad excursions.

JeepPilot10

Having a hard time figuring that out. I had a SUV that had a damaged filler neck. I smelled gas by the cap, but when I went to fill it up gas douched everywhere. No question the neck was punctured. As to why the pumps failed so quickly, I have no explanation. People run their tanks dry, sucking air through the pumps and they rarely fail. I would have expected something more like an electrical short something from water under the hood, but what do I know.

Thanks for sharing. Sorry to hear of the mess.

sknahsb

The point of entry was the emissions equipment or more specifically one of the breather lines near the evap canister. It sits on the passenger side next the the fuel tank. Although I am not up to date with all of the necessary piping for the Jeeps emission system I believe that this makes 100% sense. So the next mod is an evap relocation kit.

nvertflyer

it may have been contaminated fuel from your last fill up...i have ran mine through water up past my doors and have never had a issue...i also work as a pilot and you would be surprised how much water we sump from our fuel tanks just from condensation alone..

deederz

auh man that sucks, i did that to a previous jeep (97 grand cherokee, no wrangler) but i had left my gas cap off (i was 14 and just got my license, had a few oops with that poor jeep) but am surprised there was another way for water to get into the fuel system, sounds like that evap relocation might be a good idea

westchester

How truthful is the tech ? That speed would have caused a wave/splash. Similar to you, I've barreled through a water hole with too much pedal. Stopped soon after and had mud/water dripping from the snorkel intake and certainly had water inside the snorkel, but didn't have any issues, no hyrdrolock, engine fine so I carried on the journey. Are you 100% sure water was in the gas tank ?

carolinajk

how could the canister be vented to atmosphere it should be a closed system maybe you have a broken hose but it should def be closed loop shouldnt it ?

carolinajk

the vent tube on pass side is for the rear diff