In-Tank fuel pmp failed; OEM pmp OK? or another pmp better?

[TRAMPLINEMAN]

My intank failed on my '06 around 100K miles. I went with an aftermarket frame mounted pump for ease of change ability if failure occurred again. I'm now around 180K miles and am on my 4th aftermarket pump. Thank god for warranty and it being frame mounted.

 

[AH64ID]

My intank failed on my '06 around 100K miles. I went with an aftermarket frame mounted pump for ease of change ability if failure occurred again. I'm now around 180K miles and am on my 4th aftermarket pump. Thank god for warranty and it being frame mounted.

Is the ease of change worth the additional changes?

 

[TRAMPLINEMAN]

Is the ease of change worth the additional changes?

To be totally honest, *#~! NO!! The aftermarket pump failed on me three times hours away from home. Yes, it was covered by warranty every time. My time to contact them to send a new one, wait for a day or two for it to arrive, find a ride home from where I broke down, rent a car while truck is broke down and then change the pump out where truck broke down was not covered and is definitely not worth the ease of change for additional charges.
If I were to do it again, I'd go with a stock intank pump.

 

[Bill Stockard]

To be totally honest, *#~! NO!! The aftermarket pump failed on me three times hours away from home. Yes, it was covered by warranty every time. My time to contact them to send a new one, wait for a day or two for it to arrive, find a ride home from where I broke down, rent a car while truck is broke down and then change the pump out where truck broke down was not covered and is definitely not worth the ease of change for additional charges.
If I were to do it again, I'd go with a stock intank pump.

Your experience is similar to several of my friends who own trucks with the prior filter mounted pump and replaced it with an aftermarket pump and the reason why I chose to pay for installation of the in-tank pump kit available from Ram. The highly advertised "lifetime" warranty isn't worth much when broken down on the side of the road. If the in-tank pump, which has been proven to be reliable, ever fails, I can have my truck towed to the nearest Ram truck dealer (at no charge compliments of my emergency road service) for replacement. If they don't have a replacement pump in stock, it is as near as on overnight shipment.

Bill

 

[WalterJ]

Well, if its the 04.5 in your signature, it lasted almost 10 years... thats pretty service life. I would simply put another in-tank pump in it and drive it another 10 years.

Yes, replaced the in-tank unit with a Carter for $250 from NAPA.

 

[WalterJ]

After all these years, I'm not convinced those F..S & AD units have their act together. I dropped $250 for a Carter in-tank unit from NAPA.

Didn't hear from my diesel mech. friend yet, but said I could take him & son shooting. That ain't exactly free, but I like the option, eh. I'll tell him what the retail $$ is for all those shells I reloaded!

 

[WalterJ]

Shadrach: yea but how many miles on the Air Dog setup?

 

[Tuesdak]

Almost every gas powered car and truck built since the mid 80s have had EFI and a in tank fuel pump. These pumps are VERY reliable and the same goes for the pump in the Ram diesel since 2005. I personally have a combined 200,000 miles between my 2005 and 2011 and have no fuel pump problems. If I do, I will replace with another in tank. IF you need the extra fuel (MOST people don't) from an aftermarket pump that would be different, but there failure rate is worse than the factory in tank pump.

I guess you don't drive anything GM, because anything EFI from GM in the 90's... Well you just dropped the tank at 100K if the pump hadn't failed yet because you were on borrowed time. Most went out once before 80K and took the wiring connector with them.

The F/W separator on the suction side is a great idea. It can be a big problem with the in tank sock when something plugs it up esp. getting hit with the diesel bug. Good clean diesel fuel is something the USA isn't known for having. So when you get the slug of water, bugs, and dirt in your diesel like winning the lottery the factory system and worthless filters will let you down. CAT filters and aftermarket products is a different story vs. the OEM automaker 'you got bad fuel no warranty your SOL' stance. The biggest PIA is dropping the tank over a plugged sock. No warranty will cover this and maybe a good auto insurance company will.

Don't get me started on the obsolete OEM insanely cheap fuel level sensors that require the tank to be dropped to fix all the time gas or diesel... There is better technology out there like sealed reed switched with a magnetic float or capacitance biased level sensors. Yeah, it would cost $0.02 more...

The only reason the pump is in the tank is because electric pumps don't suck like the mechanical engine driven pumps did. And the entire vapor lock issue of the 80's on the suction lines...

Today we get to deal with biodiesel (up to 5% isn't even labeled in some states) and the aftermarket lift pump manufactures and some OEM's lift pumps don't handle the methanol the biodiesel has. Bio eats valves and other things in the unrated pumps.

From my lift pump graveyard I have one requirement and that is: FLOW ON FAIL! IMO it is much easier to change an external lift pump or plugged prefilter without dropping the tank. Reliability is always your mileage may vary, but, can be cut suddenly short with bad fuel. Lift pumps and fuel pumps are not reliable. After all you have more miles on your engine than the fuel pump in tank or otherwise, eh? Sadly even if they were reliable you are dropping the tank to fix the fuel ruined fuel level sensor.

 

[AH64ID]

I guess you don't drive anything GM, because anything EFI from GM in the 90's... Well you just dropped the tank at 100K if the pump hadn't failed yet because you were on borrowed time. Most went out once before 80K and took the wiring connector with them.

Hmm... Of the 2 GM's we had in the 90's neither had pump issues. One was a '92 K2500 that had 180K+ on it when sold in 2007, the other is a '97 K2500 Suburban than Dad still has with 280K+.

 

[Bob V]

All totaled between my family and the cars I work on for others, I have replaced two GM fuel senders and 0 pumps the last 30 years.

 

[Tuesdak]

All totaled between my family and the cars I work on for others, I have replaced two GM fuel senders and 0 pumps the last 30 years.

Absolutely people's experience varies. Glad you had good luck with them. Your example is barely enough quality in the pump doing an acceptable job. Perhaps there is a reason for your good luck, fuel, etc. that is worth looking into.

We were in charge of a fleet of over 600 pickups in California. Maybe it is the CA fuel brew. Regardless the mechanics in the shop were very experienced at quickly dropping the fuel tank and replacing the pump, connector, and relay. Kept at least 6 of each on hand. More often than not: it was breakfast, change pumps on stuff that didn't start that morning due to bad fuel pumps and then fix things towed in where the pumps died during the day. Sometimes it was faster and better for the bottom line to skip warranty and change it in our shop rather than have the pickup gone all day at the dealer. After all the pickups were hourly billed to the job site customer as well as the people tools and equipment that the pickup got there.

Looking at all the fuel pump and diesel lift pump threads like this one your position of "VERY reliable" is not defensible. Very reliable vs. other unreliable aftermarket/external/whatever pumps would be interesting to figure out because your experience doesn't even appear to include what I would consider normal failures of in tank pumps. Quite frankly IMO fuel pumps are a limited life component that is generally less than the engine/vehicle lifetime. The 100K mile mark is an obsolete spec to hold things to. More reliable than past designs of the 70's? With changes in fuel (MTBE, ethanol, Biodiesel, and other political feel good or air quality unknown dropped in the fuel after the pump was designed) and vehicle life from the 70's 100K to modern 250K this is a difficult thing to quantify.

Don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with being lucky and maybe not having to use the (science experiment) oxygenated with alcohol (or MTBE) clean air fuels to kill pumps. Maybe it's average outdoor temperature that makes a difference where hotter = shorter pump life?

Again a CAT water/fuel separator used as a prefilter on an external diesel lift pump will have a specific longer life vs. a in tank pump when bad luck of dirty buggy wet fuel hits the tank. The in tank pump eats it all and experiences a short life maybe not even living through the mess dropped in the tank. The mess is generally so bad you may have to drop the tank for a clean out no matter the fuel pump type. No prefilter and even a external Walbro plunger type lift pump gets ruined with bad fuel. Big rigs have the filter setup they do for a reason - the big three just aren't paying attention for automotive use and making it our problem.

 

[AH64ID]

I wouldn't use a CAT f/w separator, they don't separate water to the minimum spec required by Cummins.