2004 Chevrolet Tahoe: fuel pump failure

Filed May 23, 2014 · Fuel system · 165,000 miles · MI

Top of the fuel pump and those related fuel lines failed leading to a significant fuel leak, and really expensive repair. This truck is ten years old, fuel system parts shouldn't be rusting out like this. No other vehicle I've ever owned, no matter how old, has had an issue like this. Life safety and fire risk!

Filed Apr 2, 2014 · Acceleration, Brakes · 59,000 miles · NJ

Approx. 6 months ago I was driving when a vehicle entered the intersection in front of me. I stepped on the brakes and the pedal went to the floor. Luckily there was no crash but my vehicle just barely came to a stop. Towed the vehicle to a dealership and found all the brake lines were rusted out and needed to be replaced. On 3/28/14 I began noticing strong gas fumes coming from my vehicle. I again took it it in and found the fuel pump assembly, all the fuel hoses, and the straps and bolts that hold the fuel tank were rusted out. I read that the federal safety agency was doing a study of this issue. I understand my vehicle is 10 years old and I live in the northeast but I observed a lot of rust under my vehicle. I am a police officer and a crash reconstructionist and these rust issues could cause serious issues with vehicles resulting in crashes. I feel this issue needs to be investigated because it effects crucial systems like the brakes and fuel systems. Please feel free to contact me for further information.

Filed May 21, 2013 · Electrical, Fuel system · 80,000 miles · CO

I was driving on e-470 westbound near quebec when the car shutdown completely. No power. The car then would not start and had to be towed to the dealer to have a computer check. They told me it was the fuel pump, after a week, when I was having it towed to my mechanic for the repair, I decided to try to start it and it started right up. I drove it to my mechanic who checked the fuel pump and said it was fine. They could not find a reason why this happened. Same with another mechanic. Since then (I had owned the car for 5 months at that point) this has happened four more times, the latest on may 9th. Again it's been towed and again I am trying to find a permanent solution. I am now finding out the passlock anti-theft system malfunctions and cuts off fuel to the pump because the car thinks it is being stolen. I have also learned it has been a common problem in many gmc models over many years. Sometimes the passlock system can be reset (though that has never worked for me). The only way to permanently fix the problem is to disable the passlock anti-theft system. These systems should be removed from these cars. I would rather my car be stolen then shut down at 65 MPH or when my wife is driving home from downtown denver at 10:30 at night through not so great parts of town.

Filed May 15, 2013 · Fuel system · 22,000 miles · OH

Tl* the contact owns a 2004 chevrolet tahoe. The contact stated that he noticed fluid leaking from the fuel pump. The failure was noticed on two separate occasions. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic for diagnosis where it was advised to the contact that the fuel pump needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired twice for the same failure. The manufacturer was notified. The approximate failure mileage was 22,000.

Filed May 15, 2013 · Fuel system · 7,000 miles · OH

My wife and I bought the vehicle new. It was always kept in a garage and driven very little. As of today it only has 30,000 miles on it. To begin with, on or near march 2007 after exiting the vehicle I noticed a strong smell of gasoline. I looked under the car and I saw a fairly heavy dripping of gas from the top of the gas tank. I drove it to a mechanic that I have been using for many years. He told me that he had a hard time finding where the gas was coming from but with a mirror , he was able to see that it was coming from the fuel pump or what he called the fuel sending unit. He said it appearred to be coming from the pump in thr top of the tank and that it was badly rusted and needed to be replaced. I called the dealer from who we had bought the tahoe and asked if there were any recalls to this. They said no. I should also tell you that the mechanic told me that he had replaced many of this same tanks. He said it was built in such a way as to be shaped like a bowl and that the water just laid in it. It cost me 750.00 to get a new fuel sending unit put in. About 4 years later, the exact same thing happened. The entire top of the pump was rusted out and again gas leaked out . Enough gas leaked out to almost cover my entire garage floor. This really kind of scared me. Even just any kink of a small spark and not only me but my hole house with five other people not might of got hurt, with this much gas we would have been dead.. Again I checked for recalls of which there were none and ended having again a new fuel pump installed. The only difference being that he.

Filed Sep 19, 2011 · Fuel system · 62,800 miles · FL

Smell of fuel for about a week brought it to evans automotive st aug. Fl. 32080. They contacted me and told me flaw in design of tank water gets up on top of tank and sits there. This rots out sending unit and fuel pump as well as locking studs that hold down this one piece unit.tank is plastic but studs that lock in part are metal they rot making tank very very dangerous. They said I was very lucky the truck did not catch fire with my family and I in it. They said the smallest spark would have caused the truck to catch fire. To repair this it is going to run about 1500.00, or try to find a used tank in good shape. They are telling me weather new or used this is going to happen again over time. The flaw is that there is no way for water to get out of bowl shape where fuel pump is. That makes it very dangerous. When looking for tank it says tank from 2003 to 2009 fit. That means other trucks have same problem such as chevy,gmc,pickups,sierra,silverdos,yukon ect. Please look into this before someone or some family gets killed. Thank you!