2007 Chevrolet Impala fuel pump

Maintenance/Repairs
21

@Cougar – Thank you for your response. Your information is exactly the sort of info I need regarding engine design and cost to maintain.

So, then my question is, in the following list of most likely probables with a few other models thrown in for consideration, which have lower than average, average, and higher than average labor costs involved in standard maintenance that would end up needing to be done over a few years? I’m looking at non-hybrids, just regular engines, either four or six cylinder depending on which engine is best in each model for long term performance and durability.

  • Honda: Accord, Civic, CRV
  • Toyota: Camry, Corolla
  • Ford: Fusion, Escape
  • Chevrolet: Impala, Malibu

Or any other suggestions for a car that has great safety, durability, easy for the mechanics to work on thereby costing less labor, mid-sized vehicle, under $25k ?

22

Pickup a copy of Consumer Reports or just look at it online http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/index.htm. I pay the $5 for a month and then drop it after I get the info I want. Honda Accord 6 cyl has problems. I have heard some of the Fords have low ratings, but I’m not sure of the models. Toyota is always rated good for reliability, but I think their corner impact was rate low. Chevy not sure.

23

@knfenimore – Thank you for your response. I have been doing some research but hadn’t had time to look at Consumer Reports yet. I know the 2013 Camry flunked the offset frontal crash test by the IIHS but that the 2014 was slightly redesigned to withstand the offset crash test.

Managed at the last minute to get to the annual Auto Show at the downtown convention center this afternoon. (Side note: hadn’t been in downtown in several years and hope it is several more before I have to again! Used to work there and never have liked coping with the place. Aside from taking out of town visitors to see the Arch, hope I never need go downtown again! But enough of that rant.)

Anyway, spent hours looking over hundreds of cars and climbing in and out and in and out of most of them, including makes/models which haven’t been on my radar. Of course, at a dealership I can get a better look at variations of available options and actually test drive. That said, I must say that based on what I sampled today that the Camry has the lead by far. The Nissan Altima is now also on my radar; I’ll being doing research on it.

Most of all, though, by the time I was done I was delighted to get back in my 2007 Impala!II Much more comfortable overall. So, barring something calamitous or so ruinously expensive in repairs that it makes no sense to put that much money into the car, think I’ll keep this one going. Time to touch up the few paint chips, keep an ear and eye on the fuel pump and happily drive my current buggy.

24

I think you are doing the right thing in keeping your current vehicle. Even if more repairs are needed you should still be saving money over getting a new one, at least at this point in time.

You are also doing the right thing in personally checking the “fit” of the car by test driving it. That is one of the most important things to do besides basic research. I’m sorry I can’t really provide much info on the cars you mentioned lookin at but I would tend to think that Honda is going to be about the best choice. Ford is making good strides in their new cars so hopefully doing good research on the web will get you the info you want. The Camry would be a great pick also and if you really like it that is what I think you should get. There are a number of good places to do research on new cars, including here. You are doing all the right things as far as I can tell and will be a well informed buyer when it comes down to signing on the bottom line. After you pin down the actual car you want to get you will then need to do some price shopping which is a whole other issue. You might consider making a spread sheet for your top picks with all the various things you are concerned with on the new car so you mark things down for future reference. Still, the actual demo ride will most likely be the best thing to go by. Be sure to at least give the Soob a test drive even though you pass on it.

25

Thank you Cougar. Very good advice!

I’m doing “just in case” research and shopping now as time allows much the same way I did when I bought the current '07 Impala and years before when I bought the '87 Olds Cierra. Lots of online research, Consumer Reports, Edmonds, reviews, etc. Talking with relatives, friends, neighbors about their experiences with their particular make/model of cars. Going to the annual car show and then to dealerships to test drive. And when I test drive, I test drive! Non of this once around the block with the salesman along yakking and turning up the radio to distract.

In fact, seven years ago when I shopped for the Impala, I worked out a particular test route that includes stop and go city driving, interstate, crowned two lane country road, up a steep winding narrow crowned road and back down the same as well as driving the various test cars home to pull in and out of my driveway and garage and then check how if I can still access the trunk or otherwise back end of the car to unload groceries with the garage door down as well as literally load and unload several large, heavy bags of cat litter in and out of the trunk to determine how easy or difficult that is to do in each different car.

Most dealerships in this end of the county, when I explained the exact route, how many miles long it is and how long it takes to drive it were willing to let me have my test drive that way. For several makes of cars, the dealerships were farther away and I would offer to buy the gas to enable to drive back to my end of the county to drive that same test route. That way I was comparing all the various cars against the exact same road conditions. I drive with the radio off and LISTEN to the test cars as I drive and do so with windows up, windows partially open, windows fully open along the way. The very last thing I bother to check is how easy it is to use the radio. In today’s cars, they all have good sounding radios so why have the noise of one drowning out hearing how much road noise a car has, if the engine sounds strained, how smoothly the transmission shifts by sound as well as feel, etc.

Most salesmen and some of my friends think I’m being too picky. I don’t think so. Cars cost a LOT of money and I don’t have extra to spare. So I need to get a choice right. I can’t afford to swap cars every few years. I was extremely pleased with my choice of the 1987 Olds Cierra with the 3.8L engine for the 20 years I had it. And, aside from the above average mechanical problems with the 2007 Impala and a few design attributes regarding blind spots (common to ALL cars these days with the raised belt lines, especially in the rear of the car) and the tendency to easily scuff the air dam in the extended prow of the car beyond the front wheels and complicated computer menu to change the bass/treble mix on the radio which should be a simple knob, I have been very pleased with the Impala.

And, like I said, after climbing in and out of several hundred cars yesterday at the car show, it made me realize all over again what a good choice I made in the 2007 Impala as a car that fits my preferences well. So, I’ll do my best to keep it in repair, but also be pragmatic enough to do some periodic shopping to keep possible replacement choices narrowed down to a short list.

Thanks again.

26

You’re welcome Marnet. I hope the car gives you little trouble in the future. If you have some trouble let us know.

27

  1. Well, perhaps, but I have no data to back me. An engine runs more hours per thousand miles if it’s stop & go operation, so that would tend to wear the pump out in fewer miles…but not necessarily fewer hours. If it’s ALL stop & go, your pump could have as many hours of operation as my car has at 200,000 miles.

  2. yes, they do. But stuff happens.

  3. I’d just consider it normal (see (1) above). Change it out preemptively or when it dies, Your choice. Don’t fret over it. Fretting will change nothing.

28

@the same mountainbike – Thank you for your response to my original three questions!

  1. Ah, hadn’t thought of it that way. I know that since most of my driving is stop and go it requires the “extreme use” maintenance schedule. I just didn’t know if that might particularly extended to wear and tear on the fuel pump.

  2. Well, I am familiar with GM fuel pumps wearing out earlier than what GM claims the lifespan should be – at least that was the pattern with the '87 Olds. And Chevy is also GM!

  3. As long as the engine runs well, gas mileage stays the same, and the noise isn’t too loud and annoying, I’ll likely let it just make noise.

Again, thanks for answering my original questions. :slight_smile:

29

@Marnet

If it’s any consolation . . . 3-1/2 years ago we replaced the fuel pump in one of our fleet’s GMC trucks. We installed an AC Delco pump, by the way. Just a few weeks ago, I had to replace it again. It just failed from one day to the next. No warning signs at all.

30

@db4690 – bummer! I’m beginning to feel more philosophical about the fuel pump and less apt to lump it in with the previous extremely early demise of power steering and water pumps.

31

I replaced the fuel pump in a Mitsubishi my daughter owned about 5 or 6 years ago. The 250 dollar replacement pump failed inside of 6 months.
After that early death, I used an Airtex pump made for a Ford Taurus 3.0.

32

Wow, it lasted only 6 months?! That’s expensively not good.

33

If I had to do that Mitsubishi all over again, I’d have used the Ford Taurus pump to begin with. It was 59 bucks at AutoZone at the time and that pump never gave any trouble either.

I would have adapted the Taurus pump (bone simple to do) from the start but the daughter wanted a “made for Mitsubishi” fuel pump.

Locating the fuel filter inside of a gasoline tank is downright stupid in my opinion. Most cars won’t have a problem with this but for the unlucky few one contaminated tank of gasoline can partially clog the filter and possibly cause the pump’s life to get cut short.

My preference for easily removed fuel filters is based on the same thinking as removing a transmission pan during a fluid service. It allows one to visually inspect for any contaminants.

34

Two of my uncles were engineers as is a good friend. I’ve heard some rather caustic tales from all three about the sheer stupidity of too many engineering designs that may seem good on the big scale but suffer from the idiocy of little details done wrong, like putting the fuel filter inside the fuel pump inside the fuel tank and therefore inaccessible to change the filter.

35

A library could be filled with case studies of stupid automotive engineering applicable to every car maker and covering just about everything between the front and rear license plates.

36

And lumber mills, and tunnels, and bridges, and … (some of the best stories come from their collective military experiences)

BTW, ck your inbox, sir.

37

Marnet, there are two characteristics to the natural born engineer:

  1. always seeing how a design can be better, no matter how good it is.
  2. spending all weekend and $250 to repair something that can be replaced for $19.99.

Trust me on that. My kids will testify to its truth. There is nothing an engineer sees or touches that he/she doesn’t think “now why the hell did they do it that way…”.

38

Some auto engineers never heard of the slogan “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”

Their slogan seems to be “Well, let’s see here. This is reliable and easy to work on. Everybody’s satisfied except me. Let’s redesign it, make it unreliable and hard to work on. And when I’m done, I’ll say I improved it.”

No offense intended to any engineers reading this. But some of your colleagues have intelligence, but no common sense. And they sure as hell don’t figure anybody’s ever going to have to work on it.

39

None taken.
It’s the “value engineers” (an invention of the '70’s) and the accountants that generally make things unreliable and hard to work on. Their function is to make things as cheap as possible. That’s why we get cheap plastic where metal should be. The pinnacle (of success or stupidity, depending on your perspective) is plastic intake manifolds and radiator tanks.

40

LOL This conversation is beginning to sound very much like listening to my uncles. Thanks for triggering some good memories!