Fuel Pump Longevity

[mekelly]

Understanding that every situation is different (how low you let your tank get, quality of gas, etc.), how many people have had to replace their factory fuel pumps?

I am curious how many have had to replace them and at what mileage did they fail?

My Explorer has 178,000 and going strong but don't want me (or wife or kids) to get stranded due to a bad fuel pump.

 

[vq5speed]

Last year I had replaced my pump when my fuel gauge went out. I had read lots of sources that the brass float fills up with gas and makes the gauge stop working. I didn't think at the time to just replace the float. But recently I put back the original OEM pump with a new plastic float on it. So still running the original pump close to 300K

 

[mekelly]

I have another thread going titled 'Won't Start'. I just updated it to say I thought it was the relay not the fuel pump.

But it appears I was wrong. It won't start again with a new relay. Looks like a new fuel pump unfortunately.

 

[murkinstock]

My factory fuel pump roughly lasted 140k miles. It got to where it just hated starting. It would take like 15 tries before it would start. Cold morning? Forget it. I needed to use starting fluid. After it was running for a bit, it would do fine. Anyways, replacing the fuel pump fixed that issue.

I think it went to crap early because the previous owner was a cheap drunk. So I'm sure it never had more than 3 gallons of fuel in it when it was in his hands.

I replaced the whole sending unit/pump assembly with a $100 Spectra unit from O'reilly's. I think I installed that about a year ago, (more or less) and it's still doing great!

 

[mekelly]

Mine has 178,000 on it. Never had a problem till yesterday. It's about 50/50 now in terms of whether it will start or not.

Have it sitting in the driveway till the new one arrives. Rockauto had the complete OEM Bosch pump/hanger assembly for $124 so I grabbed one and will install it in a few days when it shows up.

How was the installation process? Any gotchas or things I need to look out for?

 

[murkinstock]

Hmm, the two issues I had were, the bolts holding the skid plate and tank straps on. (That was a nightmare) And when I plugged the pump connector back on, I didn't push hard enough so it didn't work, and I ended up dropping the tank again to make sure everything was correct. I found my issue though after putting it back together again. I had to push really hard to get it to connect all the way.

Other than the hardware possibly being really rusted, it's fairly straight forward.

I replaced all the hardware.

 

[mekelly]

Thanks! I have a 2WD so no skid plate but maybe I'll start spraying the tank strap bolts a couple of days beforehand to hopefully loosen up any rust.

 

[Gadget X]

Mine lasted 350,000 miles, replaced it 40,000 miles ago, but only because the sending unit float had failed. Mine was taken care of by the original owner, though, so it probably had good gas most of its life! It does vary, but I think the float typically fails long before the pump does!

 

[vq5speed]

Rockauto had the complete OEM Bosch pump/hanger assembly for $124 so I grabbed one and will install it in a few days when it shows up.

You got a quality one. I bought a cheap Airtex the first time. I read lots of people say they didn't last very long. But this was after I already installed it. The gauge worked but was never accurate. I fill my tank full but it always showed 3/4 full. This is why I decided to put my old OEM one back in with a new float. Installing I did the "cut out" access panel method.

 

[mekelly]

Yea, I don't see it listed anymore so maybe it was a deal or they had very limited quantities.

Not looking forward to the job but happy to get the whole Bosch hanger assembly with pump for not much more than just buying a quality fuel pump and strainer.

 

[larrydd999]

I had the one on my '92 replaced at about 220k miles, only because the float was bad and I decided to have the entire assembly replaced. My second GEN1 has over 230k miles and is on the original pump. They do seem to last a long time.