Thanks for all of the feedback regarding my last question regarding contamination in my gas tank. I got a new mechanic who diognosed the same as the dealer. In the end, I had some components of the fuel system replaced. I just got it back on the road and after about 190 miles everything started all over again. The fuel pump started whining as I heard it many times before (I was told this was the result of back pressure caused by the inline fuel filter being clogged). Shortly thereafter my check engine light came on. This nightmair just won't go away.

The following is what I had replaced.

Fuel tank
three fuel lines
fuel unit
fuel tank filter
in line fuel filter.

My mechanic confirmed there was a lot of crud in my tank. He emptied my fuel filter for me and it was black with crud. (it only had 150 miles of use).

My Questions
1. Should we have replaced the fuel pump as well. And if so, why did it take almost 200 miles before the whining started and the check engine light came on.

2. Also, does the tank need to be dropped to install a new fuel pump.

Thank you in advance for your advice.

Mark

Man, do I feel your pain! So sorry to hear that.

1. I find it hard to believe that your mechanic did not replace the pump while he was in there, but then again, he may have done all the right things to reach the opinion that the pump was okay. Maybe he was trying to save you a few bucks with an educated guess! Then again, maybe not!

2. By all means take it back, talk really nice, and try to work out a deal with the guy for him to go back in and replace the pump for his cost plus his normal parts markup. That would be fair. Why should you have to pay AGAIN for his labor to drop the tank, if in fact you have to do that to get to the pump. I would think so.

3. Let us know what you work out.

If the crud was in the pump, then the pump should've been replaced as well. These cars have fuel injection, which recirculates the unused fuel back into the fuel tank. So if there was this crud in the pump, then it pumped it out with the gas, and when it recirculated back to the tank, the screen picked it up, as well as the filter and other components. Thats my guess anyways.

Shawn

Just replacing the pump may not solve it. If the pump is whining because it'* pumping at high pressures it sounds like the FPR may not be functioning right, And of course and nasties in your fuel are going to end up in your injector baskets, those may need to be rebuilt.

This is a bit painful. Does the gas tank need to be dropped to replace the fuel filter? Maybe the amount of crud in the fuel pump was small enough that simply changing the fuel filter will take care of the remaining crud. Any thoughts......

I still can not comprehend why the fuel tank and the fuel lines needed to be replaced. I would assume in these cars that the fuel lines are all stainless and I know for a fact that the tank is plastic. Both of which can be thoroughly cleaned to completely eliminate all foreign particles contained within them. Even if the fuel lines aren't stainless, in alittle over 2 years, the lines should not (under any circumstances) need replacing!

If rust was present in the tank, I would have first cleaned the tank, replace the fuel filter and had the fuel system (lines all the way up to the fuel rails) flushed. Then inspect inside the tank and clean as necessary. Then I would do an injector pulse test to see if the injectors are actually flowing the proper amount of fuel per predefined pulse width (done by inspecting the fuel pressure as each injector pulses with the engine off). If they were not flowing properly then you could either have them cleaned or replaced. The fuel pressure regulator would be tested at this point as well.

By no means should the tank nor the lines have been just replaced. It still seems like you have mechanics working on your vehicle that would rather replace parts at your expense than r&r what'* actually wrong with your car.

What origonally appeared to be rust seems to be crud from a bad tank of gas. My mechanic didn't quite believe what the dealership was telling me, so he put the car on the rack and pulled the fuel filter and emptied it. The stuff that came out was black. Both my dealer and private mechanic suggested that because of the baffles in the tank, it may be difficult to completely clean it and best to replace the tank. As to replacing the fuel lines, they appeard to be rusty on the outside, partiularly at bends and where it met the fuel filter (my mechanic showed me this while it was up on the lift). Flushing them was discussed but we decided to replace them. We also replaced some fuel lines as well because of some external rust. It looks like the car was exposed to salt water. Many components under the rear of the car showed signs of unusual rust. Components under the front of the car are clean as a whislte. It is as if the car was used to place a boat in and out of salt water. We don't think this has anything to do with crud in the tank.

My mechanic informs me he cleaned the fuel pump very well before he reinstalled it and that there wouldn't be any crud in my gas tank left over from it. He now suggests the high pitched noise the fuel pump is making could be a result of it going bad, not back pressure caused by a clogged fuel filter, as before. What else could be causing this high pitched whining. It seemes to be much louder after I put the pedal to the metal. It is most noticable at an idle. If I shut the car off and it sits for an exteded period of time, the whining from the fuel pump is hardly noticable.

I am taking it in Thursday for him to pull of the fuel filter jsut to make sure it is not clogged. Any additional thoughts or advise would be greatly appreciated.

Hmmm.. fuel pump whines when hot.... Bad bearings, Mostly indicating a soon to be failure?

*educated guess*

Would that cause the check engine light to come on? Could it be that it is not back pressure and not providing enough fuel. The car runs fine.