Chevrolet Fuel Pump Question - Online Auto Repair

Another common auto repairs question would be about the replacement of a Chevrolet fuel pump. Here is a question and answer submitted recently from a visitor.

Chevrolet fuel pump replacement

Hey Mark I have a Chevrolet fuel pump question for you. I have a 1997 Chevrolet Lumina four door sedan. It has only 85k miles on it. The body is in fairly good shape, but it has given me much trouble. Last Thursday it cranked but would not start, when I tried to leave a doctor’s office about 10 miles from home.

I had it towed to a auto repair shop. They replaced the in-tank fuel pump and fuel filter. The cost was $833. The delco pump alone was $499. When I priced a replacement pump at Advanced Auto parts, it was $292. There is real savings in do it yourself auto repair.

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My lovely wife was furious. She’s Irish, and gets furious often.

She called the auto repair shop manager and said, “If I would have been told it would cost that much, I would have said, junk the car.” The manager said, “That would have been the right decision.”

Here’s my question: I do not ever remember replacing the fuel filter on that car. Would that possibly have saved the original Chevrolet fuel pump?

Thanks again for your expert auto repair advice.

Common auto repairs

Hello Ken: As far as the Chevy Lumina goes a plugged fuel filter can shorten a fuel pumps life span. The General Motors rule of thumb is to replace the fuel filter every 30,000 miles. But this is a common auto repair on a 97 lumina. So I would not go blaming yourself! As a side note I steer away from aftermarket fuel pumps on Chevy’s and General Motors products.

I have had to many repeat and premature failures from the cheaper fuel pumps. Replacing a Chevrolet fuel pump is not the kind of job I like to do twice on the same car. So if your keeping the lumina for more then a couple of months you did the right thing in my opinion!

For the exact procedure on how to replace the fuel pump in your vehicle visit the online auto service manuals page.

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