Let me start this post by stating that I’m extremely disappointed with GM. Fuel pump issues on these trucks are a common problem that GM acknowledges and yet has done nothing to in my knowledge to rectify the situation. To add insult to injury the fuel pump/sending unit is extremely pricey. I paid $235.56 and that was with a 20% discount one of my buddies got me who works at an auto parts store. I started by troubleshooting whether or not the fuel pump was in fact the problem I was experiencing. A good indication for me was that the fuel reading was off after fill ups and acting erratically. After filling up our tank on our 01 Chevy Silverado the guage would read empty many times and the low fuel warning light would come on. We actually just lived with it like this for some time and would just reset our trip mileage as an indicator of when we needed fuel.

The second indication something was going wrong with our fuel pump was when we were approaching a stale green traffic light. It turned yellow and I had to abruptly really get on the brake in order to avoid running a red light. The truck then proceeded to die at the light and would not immediately start. We pushed it out of the way and it then started and we were on our way again. It didn’t at this time done on me that the fuel pump was the culprit. About a week later we were again driving along and highway speeds and the truck just completely all of the sudden died. I coasted over to the emergency lane and proceeded to pop the hood to see if I could find something wrong. I checked all the fuses and found that the ECM-B fuse had been blown. This told me that it was the either the fuel pump or the fuel relay. Knowing I had the problem with the fuel sending unit I gambled and proceeded with the fuel pump repair.

I had done some research on the simplest way to proceed with this repair and had read a few forum posts which stated the easiest way to replace a fuel pump on a Chevy truck with the pump located in the fuel tank was to remove the bed. Now at first this seemed a bit daunting, however I had in the past struggled with lowering tanks on other vehicles with this same design to do the repair. I figured if the pickup truck bed removal was fairly simple I’d give this a try. I have to say I’m sure glad I did. If you reading this contemplating whether or not you should drop the tank or proceed with truck bed removal go the bed removal route. On a 2001 Chevy silverado extended cab its 8 bolts for the bed, 3 screws for the fuel filler tube and 4 plugs for the back tail lights and license plate light and thats it! The hardest part of the repair was lifting the bed of the pickup up and over the rear wheels just because of its weight. Other than that the repair was easy.

Once the bed was removed from the pickup this gave me extremely easy access to the fuel tank and the fuel pump. The new pump came with a new wiring harness that was easy to install with a basic wire stripper/crimper. After thoroughly cleaning the area and blowing off the dirt from the top of the fuel tank the repair was fairly simple. Removal of the retaining ring,wiring up the new harness and installing the pump with new pump seal and re-installing the retaining ring. I replaced the burned out ecm b fuse and the truck fired up on the first try. We had to drive the truck around the block with the bed removed just for grins and to give the new fuel pump a trial run. I must say that the bed removal would also be great for installing new rear shocks and even doing a differential seal or fluid change.