In the last five days I have had the fuel pump replaced in both familiy cars. First it was the 1997 F-150 with 260,000 miles and then the 2000 Dodge Grand Caravan with 160,000 miles.
In both instance the cars were running fine. They were left in a public parking lot for approximately one hour. Upon our return they would not start. Both were diagnosed by our mechanic as having broken fuel pumps. Now for the really strange parts.
Both cars wouldn’t start in the same public parking lot.
The F150 had a full tank of gas and the Caravan had about an eighth of a tank.
The F150 is always parked in the driveway and the Caravan is always parked in the garage.
The F150 is never locked (Locks do not work) and the Caravan is always locked.
The cars are filled with gas at different gas stations.
The License plate numbers are 1 digit (The least significant) apart.
A little more detailed explanation follows from which you may gather some clues.
When the F150 would not start after repeated attempts, the thought was maybe the engine was flooded, so it was left overnight and I tried to start again the following morning to no avail. It was towed to the garage and I had an new fuel pump by the end of the day and it appears to be fine.
When the Caravan was started, it started and was able to move for about 15 feet before it died. After that it too would not start. The mechanic came to the parking lot, with a large rubber mallet and beat on the gas tank (apparently this may sometimes cause a stuck fuel pump to work at least long enough to get to the garage). While beating on the gas tank he noticed a hollow sound that he took to mean that the tank was out of gas, even though the fuel gauge which had never given false readings previously indicated that there was still an eighth of a tank left (the low Fuel light was not on). After adding 3 gallons of gas the Caravan still would not start. It too was diagnosed with having a broken fuel pump and we should have it back tomorrow.
In the last week we have spent about $1300 replacing fuel pumps. This has led to the following questions.
Should we contact McDonalds and get in on their latest advertising campaign (something about the odds of winning a prize)?
Should I look for a new mechanic, even though this one has treated well for many years and I don’t think he has a new boat?
Have I upset someone who is now getting revenge by disabling my cars? How can you break a fuel pump and make it look like normal wear and tear?
Well. . .It’s pretty hard to break a fuel pump while remaining covert. By that I mean you usually have to remove the fuel tank in order to access it, and that takes several hours. A cop will likely see someone doing that in a public parking lot and wander over to see what’s going on. If you wanted to sabotage a car, there are much easier and quicker ways to do it, like, say, stabbing the tires.
My vote is also for coincidence. The vehicles are 15 and 12 years old respectively with well into the 6 digits on mileage.
Both pumps were at about the failure point and this is especialy true if the fuel filters have not been changed on a regular basis. (Say about every 15k miles.)
Yup!
This is almost surely a case of coincidence, possibly coupled with paranoia.
Have you also noticed that people are following you? ;-))
Seriously, however, the age of the pumps is a likely factor, as is lax maintenance. Those who rarely (if ever) change their fuel filter are much more likely to wind up with a dead fuel pump.
Fuel pump problems are a communicable disease that spreads between vehicles. There is no vaccine for this disease and it usually affect vehicles that have gone over 100,000 miles. Perhaps you left the garage door open and the disease spread from your F-150 to your Caravan.
The common factor here is the age and number of miles on your vehicles. It is coincidence that the failures happened around the same time.
An aside from a fuel pump’s total failure…When fuel pumps become weak (from age / use) the car can “run out of gas” while the tank’s gauge reports there’s still one-eighth of a tank remains. (I cannot tell you how many times I’ve seen this happen - to both old-style pumps and the newer, in-the-tank sort.) When this occurs, it is believed by the uninitiated that “the gauge is off [broken].” Yet, that gauge magically repairs itself immediately after a fuel pump is replaced. (And it is with the in-the-tank style of fuel pumps that keeping the tank filled to at least to the ¼ mark is HIGHLY recommended – to keep the fuel pump lubed.) You paid $1,300 for two fuel pumps?!! Consider owning a GM car from the 70s or 80s. Their pumps sell for $19.95, are held in with two bolts (that are in plain view) and come with a lifetime warranty.
I suggest doing a Google search on the “Texas sharpshooter logic falicy” the name of a logic falicy that causes people to read meaning into random clustering of events.
Leave it to this group to be the least politically astute. I guess you guys haven’t heard about this on the domestic front. There is a subversive group roaming about who calls themselves the FPPP. The Fuel Pump Problem Propagators. They’re an arm of the “greenies” out to minimize fuel consumption, now in a less then legal way.
Befuddled_bob, you have a right to worry. Immediately replace your cars with a Prius and they should leave you alone…for a few years. You have a right to feel paranoid. I’m just saying.
