jblahuta

I have an 2002 Chevrolet Silverado 1500HD. It is a 2 wheel drive with the V-8, 6-Liter engine installed in it. I am having issue to when the gas gets down to with one or two lines of the Orange (empty) fuel line you have not idea when the truck will run out of gas. It has happened once to me and once to my wife. The weird thing is you can be driving along and you will all of a sudden run out of gas, as you come to an embarrassing stop on the side of the road the low fuel light will finally come on. Please help with any ideas on how to troubleshoot/fix this problem. Right now i am thinking that the issue is only within one to two lines of the empty line. Really dont want for my wife to run out of gas with a truck load of cheerleaders on the side of the road anywhere and i cannot afford to drop alot of money since the military does not pay us enlisted members a whole lot of money. Thanks in advance for any help that you can offer me on this one.

tech2

the fuel level sensor in the fuel tank is probably bad and are known for that. You'll be into dropping the tank, removing the pump module assebly and switching in a new sending unit....so if it was me, I'd wait untill the fuel pump goes and do it all at the same time.

use the tripmeter and gas up within a known safe range until then.

jblahuta

wow that is what i was afraid to hear since even if i do it myself i am looking at a minimum of 400 i am sure. thanks for the quick reply.

Bigg G

Funny I'm reading this. I just had a conversation with my mechanic about this same issue yesterday and he told me it's not the pump it's the fuel level sensor causing the problem but since the sensor is on the pump & you have to drop the fuel tank you might as well replace it all as 1 unit and be done with it. I was quoted me $125.00 for the labor to drop the fuel tank and install a new fuel pump assembly. He also told me to make sure I buy a genuine AC/Delco Fuel Pump & try to have a little fuel in the tank as possible when I bring it in. My cost for the fix when all is said and done should be around $315.00 out the door.

jblahuta

315 counting the labor? that it is not as bad as i thought it would be. still expensive though. seems like i have been reading of a lot of people having the same issue all over the internet. really surprises me that they have not put a recall out there since this seems to be a common issue and it is not a cheap issue to fix. thanks for the information.

Bigg G

I read somewhere's that the issue is pretty common with 99-2003 fullsize GM Trucks & SUV's and the cause has something to do with faulty connections or some type of buildup accumulation on the relay connection in the tank.

tech2

Surprized? Really? Your truck is 10 years old!
my roofing shingles are only warrantied for that.

jblahuta

was just saying that since it seems to be a very common problem with these parts going out and not lasting as long as the rest of the truck. i do understatnd that my truck is ten yrs old.

Bigg G

Actually lasting 10 yrs is pretty good IMO but let's keep in mind it's not the pump that has the issue it's the sensor and we all know that most trucks/cars start having those sensor/relay issues right around 5 years old.

tech2

Every type of part on a car undergoes mean time to failure testing. Its what they use to determine the warranty period for any type of product. They know when everything will fail and set the warranty well under that time.