E85 Fuel Pump Failures

[DHB]

I am a fleet manager at Hanford WA and we have had a rash of fuel pump failures on Chevrolet Tahoe's and Dodge Durango's.
Anyone else having any problems??

Thanks

Dave

[r75tj]

My S-10 (same pump as Tahoe?) has 70K & no problems, but its mostly run on E10, as its hard for mere taxpayers to find E85 around here. Are you running mostly E85?

If so, that's a bit discouraging, as the only dif between these flex fuel vehicles is supposed to be a "hardened" fuel system, and maybe a little smarter EFI (as opposed to a variable geometry turbo like the Saab 9-5 that would actually take advantage of the superior properties of ethanol).

R75TJ

[MrFixIt]

Just be aware, what you THINK may be E85 or E10 at your friendly neightborhood pump may not be exactly that. Lots of flexfuels have sensors to tell you what is REALLY in your tank, and it's a good idea to make sure you know what's going in... I don't trust all the gas stations to always get that blend right, but I'm not sure what affect that would have...

anyone else having problems with fuel pumps?

[Great White]

I have a blog of my real world experience with E85 -
http://e85test.blogspot.com/

I checked with a couple mechanics who I know persoanlly and they have not seen anything related to E85. In fact, there is a video on YouTube where they compare a normal fuel pump (brown) to one that has been run with E85 (clean).

I can tell you from family experience, and my mechanic confirms, that Chevy fuel pumps are junk, and E85 has nothing to do with it. My parents 99 Tahoe, my 95 S-10 Blazer, yep - fuel pumps or sending units. My dad is a School District fleet manager and he replaces fuel pumps all the time on Suburbans.