Bad Fuel Pump

[dond13]

Today wasn't a good day. I had planned a short trip of a couple hundred miles, but less than 15 miles from home my 09 Genny 4.6 stalled and I had to pull off the road. I tried several times to start it but no luck. I had to have it towed in for the second time since I bought it in February of 09.

They just called me and said that it was a bad fuel pump. I have been driving for over 60 years and that is the first time in at least 40 years that I have had a fuel pump problem. That was a common failure in the cars from the 50's and earlier, but rare now. Has anyone else had this problem?

They had no fuel pumps in stock so they had to order it, but while there, they will install the nav update that I have been asking about for months. I qualify for the free update and it sure needs it. They will run the update using a battery charger, for which I am glad. If the fuel pump was here, they possibly would have run the engine the whole time.

 

[MarsellusWallace]

I just had a bad fuel pump on my 2010 4.6 as well. The car wouldn't start in the Trader.Joe's parking lot. Dealer says it was the fuel pump and replaced it. Not happy about this, not suposed to happen to new cars...

 

[mikec]

Fuel pumps are like alternators and starter motors: many cars will require a replacement one during the vehicle's normal lifetime. Electric fuel pumps are generally less reliable than the mechanical fuel pumps used on carbureted engines... statistically almost every electro-mechanical part will not have the lifetime of pure mechanical parts. Which sucks since CAFE and emissions regs are forcing more and more electro-mechanical bits. I'll bet the higher pressure pumps used on Direct Injection engines will be even more problematic for a while. There isn't much you can do to test a fuel pump either - to catch a dying one before it leaves you stranded on the side of the road. Sometimes they'll make a lot more noise as they're dying - especially if you open the gas cap while the engine runs. Do this after the car has been driven a bit; dying fuel pumps often work okay when physically cold and jam up when they get hotter. Dying pumps often run much hotter than a healthy pump too but there's no way to test/feel that...

Since you have an early 2009 model, you probably have the same NAV software as my car... see what functional changes in the NAV system you notice after the update: the lower-left corner turn indicator, the distance-to-next-turn vertical bar graph, etc. I'm really curious as to what gets broken or removed in the update since folks with 2010-later vehicles seem to have less "stuff" on their NAV displays. I haven't received anything in the mail about being eligible for an update yet... we'll see. I'd like to get the TSB that supposedly fixes the occasional "no sound at startup" issue even though I've only experienced that twice I think. Typically my system has an issue where the head unit seems to "reset" while playing XM, FM, or AM... the station I'm listening to continues but the screen looses all the related info for a few seconds... and if I try to manually tune anything I get stuck at channel "0" or whatever. The memory preselects still work thankfully. It seems to self-cure after about 5 minutes. Maybe that TSB will fix this issue too. It's one of those things that's hard to demo to a dealer since it's somewhat random... and I don't want the usual "let's throw a reman head unit in there" and end up with somebody else's worse problems.

mike c.

 

[Gunkk]

It's one of those things that's hard to demo to a dealer since it's somewhat random...

Cell phone videos are great for this... just show the video to the service writer.

 

[scottdk]

Today wasn't a good day. I had planned a short trip of a couple hundred miles, but less than 15 miles from home my 09 Genny 4.6 stalled and I had to pull off the road. I tried several times to start it but no luck. I had to have it towed in for the second time since I bought it in February of 09.

They just called me and said that it was a bad fuel pump. I have been driving for over 60 years and that is the first time in at least 40 years that I have had a fuel pump problem. That was a common failure in the cars from the 50's and earlier, but rare now. Has anyone else had this problem?

They had no fuel pumps in stock so they had to order it, but while there, they will install the nav update that I have been asking about for months. I qualify for the free update and it sure needs it. They will run the update using a battery charger, for which I am glad. If the fuel pump was here, they possibly would have run the engine the whole time.

Had mine replaced at 23,000 miles. No more sea foam for me!

 

[plhughes]

Happened to me after 2 short trips before heading to the office--4.6 2010. Stepped out of Starbucks and would crank but not start the engine. Dealer 1 in call said sounded like a battery problem. Did not sound right, but tried a jump which failed. We collectively agreed it sounded like not a battery problem--just not getting fuel. Towed to dealer 2 who were able to get pump shipped in after 2 days and installing. 19000 miles. disappointed, but glad it did not happen somewhere bad or while en route as indicated in other posts.

 

[Southern Boy]

For what it’s worth, my experience with electric fuel pumps having one fail at >110K miles on a 96 Nissan 200 SE SX.

After talking to technician at Nissan, He told me to never let that fuel go under ¼, (which I did regularly) because it will shorten the life of the pump located in the fuel tank, because the pump is cooled and lubricated by the fuel.

He also said the some cars, like GM products have a round fuel pump and cars with round pumps should never be driven for any length of time with the tank less than half full.

 

[Potty_Pants]

Corn should be ate not turned into gas.

Ppp

 

[Philth]

For what it’s worth, my experience with electric fuel pumps having one fail at >110K miles on a 96 Nissan 200 SE SX.

After talking to technician at Nissan, He told me to never let that fuel go under ¼, (which I did regularly) because it will shorten the life of the pump located in the fuel tank, because the pump is cooled and lubricated by the fuel.

He also said the some cars, like GM products have a round fuel pump and cars with round pumps should never be driven for any length of time with the tank less than half full.

Fuel pumps are internally lubricated and cooled by the fuel it picks up and pumps. Sure, having fuel surrounding the pump is good for a heat sink. Unless you are in an extremely, extremely hot environment, I suspect this would not be a contributing factor.