Anyone replace their fuel pump before it strands you?

[Paddy]

I have a 2013 Chevy Tahoe, former police car, with 160k miles. 99% of the time, when I drive it I'm off to the airport or on a business trip. So any break down would cause me to either miss a flight or miss meetings/and have to have it towed/wait days to get it fixed.

The Tahoe is in excellent shape and I plan to keep it going for a long time to come. So for me, it's no a matter of "if it fails but when?". So it's a gamble not worth taking in my opinion.

Any other items you would replace before it take you off the road? Besides battery/tires

 

[4570Man]

I don’t know how you’d go about playing that game. I think if it not breaking down is that important you should find a new vehicle. I’ve had several vehicles over 200k miles and my friends have dozens more and none has had a bad fuel pump. On my 2002 suburban I think an alternator failure was the only one that prevented it from driving. The other failures that I remember were bad coil, both front wheel bearings, antilock brake box, bad water pump, and bad batteries.

 

[teejk]

Given the poor quality of many replacement parts now I guess you have to roll the dice with replacing a working part with a new one.

 

[sd455dan]

I have a 2013 Chevy Tahoe, former police car, with 160k miles. 99% of the time, when I drive it I'm off to the airport or on a business trip. So any break down would cause me to either miss a flight or miss meetings/and have to have it towed/wait days to get it fixed.

The Tahoe is in excellent shape and I plan to keep it going for a long time to come. So for me, it's no a matter of "if it fails but when?". So it's a gamble not worth taking in my opinion.

Any other items you would replace before it take you off the road? Besides battery/tires

I will be the contrarian and say yes .
replacing before failure may be a good idea if keeping the vehicle.

Also had a gm ex police vehicle- 1996 9C1 Caprice and the fuel pump started acting up at about 180 K miles.
sometimes after running on a warm day the pump would not run when restarting the vehicle , had already replaced fuse and relay.
when i pulled the tank and removed the pump it became clear the pump was tired, plus the sock filter was dirty and lastly some of the connectors were corroded and the wiring ends were oxidized.
Once that car rolled past 200k miles i sold it Was a good car but the power window rollers failed and the famous GM Caprice speedo failed and figured other problems would start popping up.

 

[jaxs]

I think you are needlessly worrying. Look up numbers for taxies,Uber and Lyft in your area,write them in your day planner then relax.

 

[hawkeye08]

One of the guys I follow on Facebook restores/builds mostly 50s trucks, often putting a modern powertrain in them. In the last 6 months, several brand new (different brands) of in tank fuel pumps have failed before the truck was sold. New pump is not a sure thing. If you always use tier 1 fuel and don't let your tank get too low (we always try to fill up before it gets to 1/4 tank, your fuel pump will thank you. they are cooled by the fuel and if you run it to empty on a regular basis, the pump life can be impacted. I have had two pumps fail over the years, both around 170k miles if I recall. One was '92 Suburban, the other '98 Yukon. Suburban had near empty tank, normal fuel line connections, not a bad job. The Yukon had full tank and some kind of special connector that you need a tool to press in.. Big job.

 

[Jstpssng]

I wouldn't worry about it unless you are having problems. While GM and Dodge both had pump problems in the '90s, I haven't had one fail in years.
You could have a pressure test run, to ease your mind.

 

[atsah]

I don't replace things if I don't have to. You can't replace everything that is going to fail at some point in the future, who knows when. If you replace the pump now any number of things could still leave you stranded.

 

[bunyip]

Like a faulty new fuel pump.....

 

[4570Man]

Like a faulty new fuel pump.....

I’ve had an alternator fail on 3 different vehicles. I’ve had a water pump fail on 3 different vehicles 2 of the original 3. A wheel bearing is practically guaranteed failure after long enough. Battery’s are another guaranteed failure after long enough. I’ve had ac compressors lock up on 3 different fords. A fuel pump usually serves the vehicle life span in my experience. I’d look for something else to worry about.

 

[teejk]

I’ve had an alternator fail on 3 different vehicles. I’ve had a water pump fail on 3 different vehicles 2 of the original 3. A wheel bearing is practically guaranteed failure after long enough. Battery’s are another guaranteed failure after long enough. I’ve had ac compressors lock up on 3 different fords. A fuel pump usually serves the vehicle life span in my experience. I’d look for something else to worry about.

Wheel bearings on a GM 4x4 vehicle are probably going to fail after about 70,000 miles. Dunno why. Batteries probably good for about 5 years now (depending on climate and use).

 

[atsah]

A former police vehicle with 160K on the clock means anything is possible.. LEO's are not in the profession to go easy on cruisers.. Ball joints, wheel bearings, Trans, axles, the vehicle sitting for long periods of time at idle in hot and cold weather etc, they take a beating.. The only positive thing I see here is that it's a 2013 so it was probably on the road in 2012 so 5-6 years and the department had money to maintain it..

If you like and feel that it's reliable, drive it, When I start to have the slightest notion my vehicle is not feeling right and it has high mileage, I start looking into something else because they get to a point when you're throwing money down a rat hole..

 

[MossRoad]

I have a 2013 Chevy Tahoe, former police car, with 160k miles. 99% of the time, when I drive it I'm off to the airport or on a business trip. So any break down would cause me to either miss a flight or miss meetings/and have to have it towed/wait days to get it fixed.

The Tahoe is in excellent shape and I plan to keep it going for a long time to come. So for me, it's no a matter of "if it fails but when?". So it's a gamble not worth taking in my opinion.

Any other items you would replace before it take you off the road? Besides battery/tires

Trying to guess what's going to fail is impossible. Has anyone ever seen a fuel pump replacement on a preventative maintenance schedule? No.

Why?

Because it can't be predicted.

Former police vehicles are beaters. They are great 2nd cars. They are lousy primary transportation. And no one should depend on one to get them anywhere important, ever.

I'm currently driving a former emergency services '93 Suburban. I got it about 11 years ago with about 43,000 miles on it. It now has 106,000. The fuel pump went out about 5 years ago, when the vehicle had about 68,000 miles on it and it was 2013, so, what, 20 year old fuel pump.

 

[westcliffe01]

Somewhere between 160 and 190k a lot of fuel pumps will fail. If you can replace it at a place and time of your choosing, good for you. Usually you will find damage to the electrical connector, if you can clean the contacts and reassemble it with copper slip (copper anti seize) it will make a good connection for as long as you have the vehicle. But the copper anti seize can only be on the female contact since it is conductive...

I have a 2013 Chevy Tahoe, former police car, with 160k miles. 99% of the time, when I drive it I'm off to the airport or on a business trip. So any break down would cause me to either miss a flight or miss meetings/and have to have it towed/wait days to get it fixed.

The Tahoe is in excellent shape and I plan to keep it going for a long time to come. So for me, it's no a matter of "if it fails but when?". So it's a gamble not worth taking in my opinion.

Any other items you would replace before it take you off the road? Besides battery/tires

 

[dougtrr2]

Replacing the timing belt leaps to mind. On some cars with "interference" engines a timing belt failure would be catastrophic. Not sure if my cars or your vehicle falls into that category, but I have mine replaced every 100,000 miles. At the same time they do the water pump while they have it torn down.

Doug in SW IA

 

[Paddy]

The reason I'm thinking Fuel pump on this truck is because it has 160k but a bunch of idling time. So the fuel pump has likely far more hours for the given 160k miles than normal. For me a fuel pump at 200k has a high likely hood of failing soon-ish.

I agree you can't predict or replace all possible bad parts. If you can ID the most common trouble items and replace on your terms, you have a much higher confidence. Dependability is what drives new car sales and can expensive.

Each part needs review, for example an alternator is not that hard to change out in an AutoZone parking lot. (don't ask me how I know!) And you have a bit of time if you are looking at your gauge. Belts and hoses are a no brainer, low cost items that will ruin your day.

I talked with a guy who owned a few taxi's, same old cars but constantly getting overhauled with rebuilt engines trannys and such.

 

[MossRoad]

....
I talked with a guy who owned a few taxi's, same old cars but constantly getting overhauled with rebuilt engines trannys and such.

But the key there, is that he has several taxis. If one goes down, or is taken out for service, he still has his fleet to keep the money coming in. If yours goes down on the way to the airport, you're calling a tow truck and an uber and might miss your flight. If you're out on the highway on a business trip, you're gonna be calling a tow truck and a rental car company.

I get it. I have a total of about $7000 wrapped up in that '93 Suburban over 11 years. It's still worth $1500. So I have spent a grand total of about $5500 in 11 years for a vehicle. $500 per year is cheap transportation. But we have a dependable car in reserve, and a loner from our in-laws on standby, too, if needed. We have taken the Suburban on vacations, towed trailers to move college kids, haul the machine on the trailer out to remote worksites, etc... but I'd never consider it dependable enough to make me money without adequate backup. We always have plan 'B'. There's no way I'm just going to go and start replacing things like fuel pumps because it might go out. Heck, you drop that tank, pull that fuel pump, put in a new one, close it all back up and 150 miles down the road something else will go wrong with the fuel system because dirt got knocked loose, a gasket or seal got dinged, wires got pinched, the increase in fuel pressure from the new pump will burst something up by the throttle body, etc....

 

[Paddy]

MossRoad,

I just gave up my 1994 Suburban with nearly 260,000 miles. Fuel pump went out at 175,000, while on vacation!

I would have kept it but frame rusted through.....

 

[MossRoad]

My frame is fine, but the body is going quick. Rear brake line popped a month or two ago. Replaced it and did a HARD push after bleeding to see what else I could blow.... the right front burst. Replacing those lines now. And my guess is the left front will burst, so I'm just gonna replace that, too. Also found that the fire department had replaced some of the lines in the past, as there were several compression fitting patches, which are a no-no, unless temporary to get you home. So glad I found those as well. I'm getting pretty good at bending brake lines. :laughing:

 

[Jstpssng]

^^^^^
I think of some of the trucks that I ran all over New England with when self employed, yet every time that I had a serious breakdown I was within 40 miles from home. I was buying trucks when I should have been selling them.
I did do a brake job in the motel parking lot down in Canton NY once, and pulled the thermostat out at 5:30 one morning on the NY thruway, then driving home w/o it. But even though I lost engines, transmissions, multiple fuel pumps and other various problems it was always near home.