99 Fuel Pump

[apstguy]

Me and my mom were heading to the Galt flea market today (about 1hour 10min away) just crusin in the 99 Tahoe. Suddenly (while we are in the fast lane) it violently downshifts and starts loosing rpm. The engine bogs then just shuts off. Dammit. We get on the side of the freeway and try and re-start it. It just cranks and cranks but it doesn't even sputter. Explenatives were spilling out of our mouths at a high rate of speed. I tried to figure out what happened. The tranny has never give us trouble. Is that it? Did the computer go haywire? Oil pump break? I noticed when we tried to start it again that there was no familiar high pitch whine from the fuel pump. I'm guessing the fuel pump died. I checked the fuse and it is fine. Don't know if the relay was ok, but it didn't look or smell burnt. My mom did say after the fact that it did sound louder and slightly "different" today. I don't want to mess with it so we are having a shop do the work. We just put $50 in gas in it too! We finally got towed home after 2 3/4 hours and we will be dropping our current insurance over this because of problems with them and the towing service. That and all our cars went up at least $100 in premiums.

End rant. A fuel pump go in a 99 Tahoe with 77,000 miles on it? Do they fail that regularly? Don't they usually change sound at least a day before they die?

[87 STEPPER]

Tyler,

I would say it's either the relay or the pump but i bet it's the pump.

An in tank pump is an unusual component iv'e had one fail in my '87 after a few thousand miles and it was new when i did the TPI conv. i also had an '85 Astro with 70 or 80K on it when it had a fuel pump failure and both never gave any warnings the trucks ran fine and the next time i went to start one.......no go! lucky for me they were both @ home and not on the road.

I just got a '99 Tahoe and it's got 92k on it but i cant tell you for shure if it's the original pump but it's loud.

[Josh]

77k is around when fuel pumps do start to fail. One thing to prevent the pumps from dying early is to try and never let the tank drop below 1/4 of a tank, the pump relies on fuel to cool it, if you run one under 1/4 of a tank often it can and will over heat the pump and cause premature failure. If your stranded, try getting out, crawlig under it, and kicking the crap out of the tank near the fuel pump, then try to start it, sometimes that'll kick the pump back in and let ya start it long enough to get somewhere.

The GM pumps can be quite noisy, I get alot of noise complaints about them all the time, but its just normal GM fuel pump whine...

[apstguy]

They replaced it with an AC Delco part but it sounds different. I called and tried to to get the price from the dealer and they wanted to know if it was variable fuel or not and absolutly had to have the VIN number to quote me a price. Anyone have any idea of what they are talking about?

[Bowed]

Originally Posted by apstguy

I called and tried to to get the price from the dealer and they wanted to know if it was variable fuel or not and absolutly had to have the VIN number to quote me a price. Anyone have any idea of what they are talking about?

The pumps are specific to when the truck was made and build configuration ( so the right part = VIN # = different prices ) On my 98 the chevy dealer wanted $527.00 and that was just the assembley handed to me across the counter . The variable fuel I am not sure about but it sounds like they have a different set up for alternate fuel ( gasoline and propane ) trucks . We have quite a few alternate fuel trucks and SUV's in my area .