A bad fuel pump?

We got a call a little over a week ago for a telephone quote on a fuel pump replacement. These situations rarely end in our favor because someone will always do the parts replacement cheaper just to get the work. Our approach has been and always will be that we will invest in the training and tools that are required to do everything that our customers may need. In short our cost of doing business is higher than average, and when you factor in that I am the only technician it's astronomical. The result of that is we work tons of hours, and I even have a second career as an instructor to try and make ends meet.

It has worked out in one way because we are the one shop that doesn't have to send things away to the dealership or anywhere else if a module needs programmed, or if the factory scan tool is required to complete a set-up because we have been buying these tools. Trust me when I say it hasn't been easy, we have never had the cash for each purchase. Every time its been another lease to own which amounts to about a used car payment. A coupe of times we had two and three of these payments going out simultaneously while we were at various points in the lease terms.

We have a lot of people search us out for random problems, or check engine lights that just aren't solved by normal routines. As I do this blog you will see this theme get repeated.

The caller told me that the car has a new battery but it has to be jumped to be started, and that someone told her it needs a fuel pump. That doesn't add up. Then she said once she gets it started she can drive it anywhere. Now it really didn't add up and I told her so. Fuel pumps do go bad, but having to jump start the car is a reference to a discharged battery or some loss of system power in part of the circuit that they may be fixing by connecting the cables. The information she was giving me raised doubts as to what the car really needed, then to top if off she didn't know the details that were required to give her a quote to replace the fuel pump. There are several different styles of pumps, the cheapest one is just the pump but it isn't advisable to replace it that way. By design the entire assembly that the pump is inside of, which gets installed into the tank is supposed to be replaced. These also come with the complete harness replacement kit which will prevent a future loss of connection to the pump. All I could do was give her a range from around $450-$650 but at that point I didn't even know if that was going to solve her vehicle's problem. For us to do the work she was going to have to set an appointment and I was going to need to test it and prove what was wrong, then I'd be able to give her an accurate estimate. She set an appointment for that Saturday, but failed to show.   To be continued.....