I have a 2001 Chevy Blazer 2wd 4.3L. The other day the gas was so low that it was reading low miles on the range reader. I filled it completely up for the first time in months. (We usually dont fill it completely up because usually it leaks out somehow after 3/4 of a tank...at least you smell gas all week and the gas mileage starts sucking.) Anyway...filled it up tuesday morning. Drove 80 miles round trip..no gas smell. Today (friday)...i pull up to the pump, turn off the truck, put $30 in gas which brought it pretty much even to the full line...went to start it and it acted like it was gonna start...it cranked but wouldn't turn over. Left it at the gas station all day and came back later that night..tried to start it...nothin, just cranking. We pulled off the thing that goes over the fuel injectors and poured gas directly on the injectors and it started for a minute and then died...this led us to believe it was the fuel FILTER...went over to walmart and bought a fuel filter, installed it, it started for a second and then died again and hasn't done anything since. The fuel pump seems to have a buzzing/clicking noise. What could this be? I've had suggestions from the battery to the fuel pump to timing to an electrical issue. My thoughts are something with the fuel system since it started with gas in the injectors. A new fuel pump is over $300!!! Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

If you able to get to the engine to run with gas directly in the manifold then you know you have spark. Remove the air filter and see if can the engine to run (an air filter is about $10). Also get a fuel pressure testing gauge you should get about 60 to 66 PSI engine off, key on, with a decrease of 3 to 10 PSI engine on. If can even get 60 PSI with the engine off and key cycled on, then you can go ahead and replace the fuel pump knowing that was the problem. Also, whenever you let the fuel level drop below a 1/4, you effectively starve a the pump of its cooling source which is the fuel itself. Nothing burns up pump like running low on fuel.

 

Have you ever looked at a pump for these trucks? It resides in a bucket that stays full of fuel, which keeps the pump cool even with less than 1/4 of a tank of gas.

 

^+1, also, doubtful the air filter has anything to do with your problem. I would start with the fuel pressure and leakdown test. If you can smell gas I would bet you have a bad fuel pressure regulator.

 

Not for nothing, but at one time I had that gas smell also..guess what it was? The fuel pump and it cost me plenty ($398.00 for a Delco Fuel Pump and $15 bucks for a new filter and around 300 for labor, I had a shop do it, Total was around $728. But it fires up the first time everytime now and no gas smell). Oh and it had the hard starting also. Now its back in the shop for another matter. (Electrical). I would bet on the Fuel Pump being bad..but, you must test it first and make sure, 700+ bucks is nothing to sneeze at more like a Old shi*.

 

Well, we bought the fuel pump, dropped the tank and one of the lines was bad. It just snapped right in two as the tank was being lowered. The line was also leaking gas. Its a line that kinda sits on top of the tank i think and there was a ton of dirt and gunk on top of the tank so when the gas was leaking out of the line it was mixing with the dirt which was causing the black gas situation. Fuel pump was bad. We got it all installed and gas put back in it. It starts up with a nice crisp jolt and says "Mmmhm gas! Yum!" Needless to say I think my truck is happy now. And now i dont have to worry about filling it up all the way and gas leaking out anymore. Altogether for us to do it ourselves it was about $380 and a full day's work. It doesn't seem to be cutting out when you're going down the road anymore either. We were thinking its been going out for a while. All that and we lost less than 1/4 of the gas. Thanks for all the help guys.

 

Oh yeah...any ideas as to what could be causing the ABS & Brake light to come on randomly all the time? The service engine light has been on and the autozone tester pulls up an emission problem, possibly a vacuum leak but i dont know anything beyond that. It doesn't seem to be an issue as far as we can tell...its just a bit annoying with all those lights on...lol

 

Your EBCM(electronic brake control module) is probably going out. Quite an expensive repair.