Fuel Pump Sender

[BUNNYMAN]

Hello all. I purchased a 2004 LR Rally Zetec for my daughter last December. The car was a registable write off - a victim af the Brisbane storms in November 08.

To put it mildly its been quite an adventure to getting the car up and running. Anyway two weeks ago my daughter got her licence and I handed the keys to her.

The car runs beautifully and apart from Ford not able to reprogramme the keys to enable the doors to open by the touch pads I thought I was giving my daughter a safe and reliable car.

Alas you wouldnt believe it on the day I gave her the keys while i'm in it where heading up a hill the car begins to choke/splutter/hop .....You know the typical noises a car makes when its about to run out of fuel.

We pull over and it wont restart. The cars petrol gauge is reading a quarter. Some 3 months earlier I filled the car up after replacing the instrumentation cluster and watched over the past months the gaugue drop from full to quarter.......( thus I dont think its a faulty gauge). In addition when I start the car the low fuel warning light comes on as it should before going off.

I get under the car and while my daughter turns the car over i thump the fuel tank ( thinking that perhaps something is clogging the fuel pump.......I never drained the fuel tank since I got the vehcile) It sounds empty.

So I put more fuel in it and it starts straight away . I fill the tank right up and the gauge is reading full. I'm naturally thinking its a faulty fuel pump/sender. I set the trip meter and over the past week watch the fuel gaugue drop down again to about a quarter. The trip meter is reading about 430kms when once again the old motor starts to choke ect ect .....

Thus I'm thinking we are about to run out of fuel. So I fill the car up again. However I can only get 40 litres in before its full. The book tells me its a 55 litre tank .

Ford tells me its a $500 job to drop the tank and put in a new pump....I've spent more than enuff thanks Ford!

Thus I'm at a bit of a loss what the problem is ......

If its a faulty pump/sender then how come i can only get forty litres in ? Perhaps there maybe litres of water swishing around in the bottom of the tank ? If there is how come when i thumped the tank it sounded empty? If there is water then wouldnt the pump suck the water/fuel from the bottom of the tank and therfore the car would never run?

If it is water and when the pump starts sucking it up and the motor starts to choke then I'm thinking perhaps the sender is ok and all that need to be done is draining the water.

How do i get the water out ? Do i don my jackass gear and attempt to punch a hole in the tank and blow myself to kindom kum?

Any ideas would be appreciated. I see on the net that these sender units have had problems in the past . I just dont want to go to anymore expense..if I can get around the problem a cheaper way.

....its cost me a bomb already!

[FOCUSonTHIS]

Put some metho in the tank to get rid of the water. That is what my mechanic told me. Should evaporate the water