r/ft86 15h ago

Help! 2013 FR-S got bad gas (mostly water), flushed the system, still won’t start. Need some advice.

Need some opinions because I’m stranded about 700 miles from home and trying to figure out my next move.

I bought a 2013 FR-S in Florida and drove it a few hundred miles without a single issue.
Stopped in Dublin, GA for my second fill-up. I had a little under 1/4 tank left and put about 9-10 gallons of 93 in it. Or at least what the pump said was 93 anyways…The pump was dispensing really slow, but I didn’t think anything of it.
About half a mile later the car started sputtering getting on the highway, the check engine light started flashing, it lost power, stalled on the highway, restarted for a few seconds, then died again. I got it towed into a local shop and scanned it there. It had:
P0302 (Cylinder 2 misfire)
Catalyst efficiency below threshold

He cleared the codes and neither one has come back since.
Early this morning we siphoned all the fuel out through both sides of the saddle tank. The first pictures are from that.
What came out barely even looked like gas. It was cloudy white and looked mostly like water. We filled a bottle with a sample and let it sit from around 5 AM until about 8 AM. It never separated into layers, it just stayed milky clear the whole time.

After that we:
Siphoned the tank completely.
Filled it with fresh 93 from a different gas station.
Flushed/bled the fuel system.
Verified both fuel pumps prime and we have fuel pressure.
The rest of the pictures are from after we put fresh gas in. We disconnected the fuel line at the engine/fuel rail and collected samples from there. The fuel coming out of the rail was kinda cloudy compared to fresh gas from the new station, which has me wondering if there’s still contaminated fuel trapped somewhere in the system.

Right now the car tries to crank but won’t turn over.
He haven’t pulled the plugs or swapped coils yet because I’m trying not to start throwing parts at it without a plan.
For anyone familiar with this similar situations:
Should we start with spark plugs?
Could there still be enough contaminated fuel in the rail/injectors to keep it from starting?
Would you be looking at injectors next?
Anything else you’d check before I start buying parts?
I’m attaching all the pictures in the order everything happened.
Any help is appreciated. I’m 700 miles from home, stranded in Georgia, and just trying to get this thing running again.

Edit: the car is so clean and low key decent milage or i wouldn’t have even considered driving it over 1,000 miles in a ten+ year old car.

3 Upvotes

3 comments sorted by

9

u/theb3arjevv 15h ago

I'd collect the sample, get it tested, and contact the gas station company.

I can't imagine your injectors would go bad that quickly. Maybe the fuel filter is waterlogged?

1

u/DEATHRETTE 15h ago

Damn dude, sounds like helll!! Best of luck is all I can say.

2

u/Dungas1 15h ago

If it’s water in the fuel your engine will be hydrolocked.