How much noise does your fuel pump make?

[Silver 99 Camaro]

OK, here's the background to this question. I am on my 3rd fuel pump since the car was new, and this one is only 3 months old...and it's buzzing. Here are the details..

1. Factory pump lasted 30K miles and was replaced under warranty for bad sending unit (fuel gage bad). Pump was good however.

2. Warranty replacement lasted 29K miles...then it had a high pitch whine for 6 days and died suddenly.

3. Got that one replaced 3 months ago...this one was a little louder than the original equipment two, but now it buzzes constantly. If I walk behind the car I can hear the buzz over the exhaust and a little inside the car. But I have no other problems like hard starts or sputters.

So, here's my question. This new one buzzes/humms, but it's a different sound compared to the high pitch whine the old one made before it died. Do any of your pumps make noise? Have any of you had this many fuel pump problems with the same car? The new pump is under warranty for 12 months/12,000 miles so if I want to complain I have to make a decision in the next few months. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[1DangerousV6]

i would go with an OEM pump..you should not be able to hear it buzzing THAT loud..my car has over 90K miles on it and im still on the OEM pump..it has a VERY soft buzz that i could not hear at all until i took all of the carpetting out for some weight reduction

[Marty85]

My car has 130k on it with the original pump and I can hear mine buzzing outside of the car all the time and when the tank is low I can hear it slightly inside the cabin. Not really worrying about it if you ask me, ive heard alot of vehicles with in tank pumps that whine really really loud. Also just out of speculation, if you dont keep your fuel level high enough for a long period of time, then the fuel pump is just sittin there dangling. Remember its electric so what happens? pump gets hot and cools down when you stop your car. Constant heating and cooling of electronic equipment is very bad for them because the materials in the pump expand and contract continuously which will eventually wear something out. Now if you keep enough fuel in the tank to submerge the pump motor, then the fuel itself will cool the pump probably prolonging the life of the the pump. But this is just pure speculation coming from my vast knowledge of electronics and circuits.

[Silver 99 Camaro]

They do say if you run your tank low a lot and don't change your fuel filter it will shorten their life. But I never run below a quarter tank and change my fuel filter every 30,000 miles...so I don't why they keep going bad.

[Little G]

maybe you need a new fuel filter, could be causing the motor to go bad...?

[shenanigans]

Off hand should the fuel filter not affect the pump, isn't it after the the fuel pump, it woudl be more likely to make your injectors run better?

but if it helps my pump can be noisy, to the point of I have had non-car people ask what that humming noise is. My car is pretty quiet though, you can't even tell its running at times. But ehh... I get decent mileage, run good times and don't have the least bit of delay on startup, so I assume its fine.

[F1GT]

Originally posted by Marty85:
My car has 130k on it with the original pump and I can hear mine buzzing outside of the car all the time and when the tank is low I can hear it slightly inside the cabin. Not really worrying about it if you ask me, ive heard alot of vehicles with in tank pumps that whine really really loud. Also just out of speculation, if you dont keep your fuel level high enough for a long period of time, then the fuel pump is just sittin there dangling. Remember its electric so what happens? pump gets hot and cools down when you stop your car. Constant heating and cooling of electronic equipment is very bad for them because the materials in the pump expand and contract continuously which will eventually wear something out. Now if you keep enough fuel in the tank to submerge the pump motor, then the fuel itself will cool the pump probably prolonging the life of the the pump. But this is just pure speculation coming from my vast knowledge of electronics and circuits.

Not sure about your car, but the 99 and up has a bucket system and the pump is always submerge in gas. This prolongs the life of the pump as it is not exposed to the air and when your tank is low it still keeps gas in the bucket so it won't starve from sloshing.

Silver 99 Camaro: If I were you I would just forget the dealer thing and shell out a hundred bucks and replace the pump with an aftermarket one. This way you won't have to keep worrying about it dying on you. What if it dies on you when it's pouring late one night or out in the middle of nowhere?? Imagine the tow bill if you were far off!!

My pump just died on me a couple of days ago, but my fuel sending unit is also messed up. I ordered a WHOLE new assembly. Hopefully, this one would be as quiet as my stock one was. Yes, it was pretty quiet until a few months ago. It was not constant whine, just once in a while. And once in a LONG while I would hear this whine that sounded like a world war II siren.

I will be cutting up the floor board as I am too lazy to do all that tank dropping stuff.

[Silver 99 Camaro]

I went back to the place that put it in...not a dealer but they did use an AC Delco fuel pump. The guy said they are the best ones from his experience and he did agree mine makes noise. but he said his Chevy pickup and van also make the same noise and have been fine for a long time. Just like last time he said bring it back if it gets worse otherwise live with it...he said if it gets ready to fail it will be REALLY loud. I guess I am stuck until the damn thing dies before I'll get a new one out of them.