Fuel Sending Unit

I posted yesterday about my truck having to be towed to the ford dealer for repair.

Dealer called...said I was out of fuel. Interesting because I had a quarter tank on the gauge and the low fuel level light never illuminated. They are checking that out...

Here’s the beauty part...the price for replacing sending unit is $1100.

For that kind of money, I can run it down to what I believe is half a tank and keep two five gallons can in the bed Incase I misjudge.

Yep. I hate it that they now put the fuel pump inside the gas tanks. Which is why I never let my truck get below a 1/4 tank.

Dang, only $800.00 on a prius.

Ford called again...

It’s not the sending unit...it’s the fuel pickup.

I don’t believe this is unique to Ford...but it seems that if fuel is not delivered to the injectors, the engine will not run.

My Dodge has a cheap Carter fuel pump.
The true cost of the thing is about 70 dollars. The Cummins part depends on what it is used for. They had a deal years ago that if you used the pump in one of the school bus engines the cost was 60 dollars. If you used it in a Dodge truck it cost 180 dollars. I found a Cummins dealer in El Paso that did not need to know what you were using them for and i bought 2.

I sold one to a friend who's quit. I am still using the other one but I would absolutely bypass the in tank pump if I were you. Buy a FASS, mount it to the frame for 400 dollars and call it a day.

I would suggest you let them replace the whole sender assembly. You could just replace the pickup cone because it more than likely fell off, is broken in a million pieces or the little plug fell out of the side of the pickup. All will cause it to suck air and eventually run out of fuel at or below the 1/4 tank mark. The reason we suggest replacing the assembly is once it is handled /disturbed you could start having inaccurate fuel gauge issues and have to drop the tank all over again. Also make sure they backflush the lines from the low pressure pump to the sender as the little pieces of rubber from the failed pickup can get lodged in the fuel lines and cause intermittent drive ability issues. Hope they get you fixed up.

Wesley Srianekkul
Ford senior master diesel technician

Thank you.

Appreciate the advice.