Good or Bad Fuel Pump
 

Is there any indication when a fuel pump is going bad, or does it just quit. How long should a fuel pump last. Is it easier to drop the tank or remove the bed?

Only test I know is a hill test i done it for years go on less then 1/4 tank and find a step hill then floor it if stumped my be problem
2 is advance sells a gage you can bring in window and drive
3 if you got a smartphone buy a Bluetooth obd2 reader it may have real time fuel info idk buying mine soon

Unless you have something wrong with the wiring, it will not stop suddenly. Best way to tell your having an issue is just to drive. If it is surging or your getting irregular acceluration you should be fine. as far as changing it you can do it either way, depending on what is easier. If you have the space and the tools, I would remove the bed and do it that way. If you drop the tank you have to drain it completely and its just alot more complicated.

Thanks. That's good to know. I just don't want to get stuck one day with no warning. It always happens at the worst time.

On my 98 when the pump was going out you could hear it whine. When I would try to give it too much acceleration on take off it would scream like I was going 100 mph but act like it wouldn't shift out of first gear. Under normal take off- you wouldn't know anything was going bad. Best way to change it is lift the bed up or off because the lines going into the pump are plastic and if you drop the tank you will more than likely break them off. This is how the dealer does it.

maybe your dealer but personally the only time I've talked to a tech that has removed a bed is on their own time in a driveway not at the shop.

I've only had a bed off once and can't even count how many fuel pumps I've done, and not to burst your bubble as others have made good points but yes a fuel pump and fail at random it happens every summer to many travelers. Can't count how many times I've heard the "i stopped to fill up and it wouldn't start afterwards" story.

Read it again! I said on my 98. I DID NOT say that they could not just stop working, I simply told what my fuel pump was doing when I had it changed with a Delco pump at the dealer who took off the bed to change it. Now if the tech you talked to would drop the tank to change it in his own driveway on his own time seems to me like a good indicator that THAT would be the best/easiest way to do it. When somebody else is paying the labor cost you take always take the long way around. This is what I did, who did it and how it was done.

I have heard the same "It wont start stories" but they usually come from the people with no mechanical experience. I have seen it time and time again running down the highway and you see a car at the side of the road and when you stop you hear, " I heard this whining sound but I thought it was the wind". They are not the best cases to use if your trying to prove a point.
And as far as I have seen, I have never seen a mechanic drop the fuel tank to change anything, and to be honest If I took my truck to a shop and they wanted to drop the tank, I probably wouldnt go back.

get around high volume shops and you will, 1 guy with a tranny jack/fuel tank adapter can replace the plump easily alone where as if you remove the bed you require more space and more manpower. To each their own but as a technician paid on a flatrate system I will drop the tank any day, the only way you break anything is if you don't unhook it, theres plenty of flex in the lines and if you know what you're doing its gravy.

Besides if its such a bad idea to drop tanks how would you replace them in anything else? suvs, passenger cars very few of them have access doors

I have never seen or heard of anyone in a shop taking the bed off to do a fuel pump. In the shop most fuel pumps can be done in less than a hour by dropping the tank. That is on every make and model that does not have an access panel.