GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Curious about how long the Vibe fuel pump lasts. Its one of those repairs that you hate to think about. Most anything on the car you can tweak or get by for a little bit to limp home on. Fuel pump goes kaput and its game over, call the tow truck. Run down past or present vehicles and mileage their fuel pump was replaced:

1986 2500 Chevy pickup 190,000
1999 1500 GMC Suburban 264,000
2000 1500 GMC Suburban 118,000

Depending on what I find, may consider replacing the pump on mine as preventative maintenance. Right now the Vibe sits at 184,000 on the original pump.

There have been very few bad fuel pumps reported here, even with very high mileage. But at least to change it, you don't need to drop the tank.

WOW Derf!
You must be the Grim Reaper of fuel pumps, lol.
I've heard of fuel pump failures shortly after running the OUT of gas! Dragging sediment into the pump with the last few drops of gas.
Did any/all of your GM trucks start with a noisy howling fuel pump before it failed?
My 96 K1500 fuel pump began howling 3 years ago and I immediately replaced the fuel filter - the howling stopped and hasn't returned.
chiadog

Just reading thru old posts about maintenance prior to a long cross country trip and this one caught my eye. To extend a fuel pump's life, don't run around regularly on a low tank. Besides the obvious sediment problem from running out, there is another important fact which is often overlooked...fuel recirculates and this action cools the pump. If the tank is nearly empty the fuel is running hotter than necessary and the pump does not fare as well. Condensation rusting the pump or other fuel system parts is yet another consequence of running around all the time with a low tank. Do your car a favor and treat 1/4 tank like "empty", don't wait till you're running on fumes to fill it up.

my first one got 288K miles on the factory fuel pump, and was still working fine when I traded it in. I tended to run it quite low most every tank. The pump sits high in the tank, not sure how much cooling it gets from fuel (unless you never go under half a tank).

My first Vibe was on it's third 5 speed, and needed it's third catalytic converter, but never had any fuel pump problems. I'd say save your money and skip the fuel pump as preventative maintenance. put the money into oil, coolant and tranny fluid changes

I have 220k miles on my car and the fuel pump works fine. They aren't an unreliable part on these cars.

As far as changing it, its actually easy as hell to do if you aren't scared of working with open gas fumes. Just unbolt the rear seat cusion & flip it upwards, unscrew the access panel & then unbolt the plate the pump is attached to. Lift that mofo out & undo it, swap it put it back done. Its less than a 30 minute job.

Also, in case you were wondering...fuel filters are on the fuel pump IN the gas tank & are supposed to be lifetime (never be changed). You can if you want, but it involves the same procedure above to just change the fuel filter. I've never heard of anyone having problems w/those either on here or the matrix/corolla forums.

Thanks for the feedback. All the other vehicles I owned have a pump and separate filter which usually gets changed about every other year. When I saw the incorporated lifetime filter on the Toyota fuel pump in the manual, it threw me. Seemed to good to be true. Wanted to make sure I was not missing any preventative maintenance before going on an extended trip.

Derf wrote:Thanks for the feedback. All the other vehicles I have owned have a pump and separate filter which usually gets changed about every other year. When I saw the incorporated lifetime filter on the Toyota fuel pump in the manual, it threw me. Seemed to good to be true. Wanted to make sure I was not missing any preventative maintenance before going on an extended trip.

lol...I felt the same way when I inquired about when to change the timing belt, like I've had to on my other cars. Answer: There isn't one! Aren't Vibes great?