I have a 2000 Malibu LS. I was driving down the interstate one day and the car decided to choke, surge, and hic cup and the RPM's started to fall until the point that the car quit running when I came to a complete stop. As the RPM's were falling I tried to feather the gas pedal and nothing happened. The car died I waited for about 10 mins started the car just fine like there was no problem all of the sudden as I was driving down the road, again the same problem. This time was different I had to wait 15 to 20 mins. I got it started and again the same problem, but the wait time was getting longer and I was go a shorter distance. There was no check engine light that came on, nothing to give me a clue of the problem. I took it to the dealership they checked out the car for 2 days. I talked to them after the first day of checking it out and asked them to check a couple of sensors which they did. After 2 days they told me that there was nothing wrong with this car. I asked the dealer if the fuel pump would throw up a code in the computer he said nope. I ran with the idea that the fuel pump was the problem. Keep in mind a new fuel pump assembly is between $200-400 for a brand new one. There is no way to know if the problem is the fuel pump or not until you pull it out to find out. There was no way I was going to spend that much when I can do the work myself and EBay was still in business. I found a fuel pump replacement kit for about 65.00. that was just the pump, 2 strainers, and 2 hoses.
Ok, now the repair: It took me about 20 mins to drop the empty fuel tank. I pulled the fuel pump assembly out. The fuel pump assembly is a canister looking assembly with the pump in the center of it and all the hoses on top of it. You have a sock strainer on the outside on the bottom of the canister and you have another strainer that is attached to the bottom of the pump. The sock strainer stops the bigger particles and the strainer on the bottom of the pump stops the smaller dirt. I took the assembly all apart which is a little harder than you think. I changed the strainer on the pump and figured that was the problem by how dirty the strainer looked. Then I decided to do a flow test on the pump to make sure everything was working well. To my surprise the strainer on the outside bottom of the canister was NOT letting any water thru it. I took it off the canister and filled it with water and nothing would come out of it. That was stopping the gas from getting to the fuel pump. After washing it and getting it all clean I put it on the pump for a flow test and it worked great. Then I decided to run alcohol thru the pump to dry out all the water. Installed it back in the tank and put the tank in the car filled it up and took it for a drive. Worked wonderful!
I never used the fuel pump kit the only thing I changed was the strainer that was attached to the bottom of the fuel pump. Which cost me $10. The dealer wanted to charge me over $1000 to fix this problem. Oh yea they would have fixed the problem by replacing that fuel pump assembly. I like my way better. $10.00
I hope this help everyone that has this issue. Feel free to ask any question you want.
I have a 2000 Malibu LS. I was driving down the interstate one day and the car decided to choke, surge, and hic cup and the RPM's started to fall until the point that the car quit running when I came to a complete stop. As the RPM's were falling I tried to feather the gas pedal and nothing happened. The car died I waited for about 10 mins started the car just fine like there was no problem all of the sudden as I was driving down the road, again the same problem. This time was different I had to wait 15 to 20 mins. I got it started and again the same problem, but the wait time was getting longer and I was go a shorter distance. There was no check engine light that came on, nothing to give me a clue of the problem. I took it to the dealership they checked out the car for 2 days. I talked to them after the first day of checking it out and asked them to check a couple of sensors which they did. After 2 days they told me that there was nothing wrong with this car. I asked the dealer if the fuel pump would throw up a code in the computer he said nope. I ran with the idea that the fuel pump was the problem. Keep in mind a new fuel pump assembly is between $200-400 for a brand new one. There is no way to know if the problem is the fuel pump or not until you pull it out to find out. There was no way I was going to spend that much when I can do the work myself and EBay was still in business. I found a fuel pump replacement kit for about 65.00. that was just the pump, 2 strainers, and 2 hoses.
Ok, now the repair: It took me about 20 mins to drop the empty fuel tank. I pulled the fuel pump assembly out. The fuel pump assembly is a canister looking assembly with the pump in the center of it and all the hoses on top of it. You have a sock strainer on the outside on the bottom of the canister and you have another strainer that is attached to the bottom of the pump. The sock strainer stops the bigger particles and the strainer on the bottom of the pump stops the smaller dirt. I took the assembly all apart which is a little harder than you think. I changed the strainer on the pump and figured that was the problem by how dirty the strainer looked. Then I decided to do a flow test on the pump to make sure everything was working well. To my surprise the strainer on the outside bottom of the canister was NOT letting any water thru it. I took it off the canister and filled it with water and nothing would come out of it. That was stopping the gas from getting to the fuel pump. After washing it and getting it all clean I put it on the pump for a flow test and it worked great. Then I decided to run alcohol thru the pump to dry out all the water. Installed it back in the tank and put the tank in the car filled it up and took it for a drive. Worked wonderful!
I never used the fuel pump kit the only thing I changed was the strainer that was attached to the bottom of the fuel pump. Which cost me $10. The dealer wanted to charge me over $1000 to fix this problem. Oh yea they would have fixed the problem by replacing that fuel pump assembly. I like my way better. $10.00
I hope this help everyone that has this issue. Feel free to ask any question you want.
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- dutch724, Brownsburg, IN, US