Hi everybody,
Im having trouble with a Jeep ecodiesel, post AEM, and looking for information from a diesel mechanic and hoping there is one here or someone that can give me a contact for a quick question answer session.

Question, can rust in the fuel tank cause emissions issues with working fuel filters in place? No other codes.
Can rust in the tank damage fuel components with working filters in place?

Short Story:
Have ecodiesel, got AEM done and engine light 3 days later for excessive regeneration.
Dealer has had my vehicle since June 8th (DPF has been replaced) At day 25 (30 days required for buyback) of them diagnosing they claimed contamination of the fuel system due to rust. My insurance tested fuel and found nothing but dealer wont change diagnoses. $9000 quoted repair so I am stuck at the moment and trying to determine if the rust is really an issue or bogus.

Thanks for the help.

Got nothing to add but that diagnosis sounds real suspect to me. Interested to see how it turns out.

So this is a new vehicle and they are claiming the tank rusted enough to cause problems?

Take it to another dealer and open a case with corporate, any fuel contamination, rust or otherwise was likely caused by the installation of the AEM. Did you receive your settlement cash?

There's been significant issues reported after the AEM "fix"; here is an article that lists a few of the issues.

https://www.tflcar.com/2019/08/jeep-grand-cherokee-ecodiesel-update-owners-report-significant-lag-hesitation-after-aem-software-fix/

Question the dealer on how they got rust in the diesel diagnosis. Ask for their fuel analysis and/or replaced fuel filters with the contamination present.

Fuel tanks are now mostly fiberglass underground for several reasons. Big one is that they don't rust and leak out, causing long-term damage to the environment. Also, there are usually about 3-5 filters between the storage tank from a refinery and your fuel tank in the car that the fuel goes through. So anything big enough to cause an issue would have been caught already.

If you had excessive water in the fuel, you could have caused rust in the tank, but your filters should/would catch that. Hence the ask for the filters and see the proof.


To me, it seems like they are lying and wanting you to pony up the cash to fix the car.

~egon

The vehicle is a 2015 with 95000 miles so not new.

The rust diagnosis came from a fuel sample and pictures inside the tank, and on the fuel pump. There is rust in the fuel tank and on the pump, that I don't disagree with. I would guess most vehicles this age have some amount of rust and sediment in the tank.

My question is, how does rust in the fuel tank get past the fuel filters to cause damage?
How is the damage it caused only causing an emissions code to pop up and nothing else?
Is anything really damaged.

The engine update has caused numerous issues for people and I have been following those, Im trying to figure out how I can prove its the update and not contaminated fuel.

Ask what the AEM update specifically updated, as I said earlier, my guess is it is related to the update. My WAG is that it updated the fuel pressure, and/ or fuel flow, and the filters weren't designed for the increased pressure. Can they flash it back to Pre-AEM? If so, do the codes go away? My guess is that they would; provided something wasn't permanently damaged. I don't really believe in coincidences, the rust has been there long before the AEM update, the update has caused the rust to suddenly be a problem.

Rab, I didn't see your post before I started my own thread, check this out

https://www.thedrive.com/news/29331/lawsuit-alleges-chevrolet-and-gmc-duramax-engines-sold-with-wrong-parts-cant-take-american-diesel