The fuel pump in my 97 sc2 died last week. Thankfully it was in the driveway. Fuel pressure gauge reading of 0 combined with no firing and the previous week's hard starting and excessive use of petrol kinda gave it away. My gm dealer wanted 430 just for the pump and another 180 for the sending unit.....what's up with that? I picked up a full module with sending unit and screen for 200.

Thought about doing myself but it sucks with no lift.

So why did the car start excessively consuming gas right before fuel pump death?
The pressure was probably down but i wouldn't think that would make it run rich.....

Ideas?

 

Sounds you were quoted the "a-la-carte" pricing on the parts, and not the "meal deal" for the complete unit ...

 

What makes you think it was consuming gas? Actual consumption based on filling the tank or a gauge reading?
If it was consumption it seems to me that there would have been other operational problems too. Example if fuel pressure is down it ought to run pretty bad. Bad running can lead to excessive fuel consumption but if it running bad enough driving it would be a handful. Thus leading to the possibility the gauge is playing with your mind.
I've been lucky I only had to replace one fuel pump in the tank on anything. But many a times pulled the tank to replace or repair float units for the gauge. Or to just clean the tank out. '
A root canal can be more fun than that.

 

filling the tank based on consumption --- which matched the gauge reading i do believe. Hell maybe I was leadfooting too much with the A/C on. Just seemed my 1/4 tank round trip to philly started consuming 3/8 of a tank for about a week and a half before fuel pump death. So the gauge told me (who was told by the sending unit -- who still works. ) Car was getting harder and harder to start.

1st prime wouldn't cut it any more. started taking two cranks.

The day it took three is the day it died in my driveway.

The relative silence of a rotating engine with no cylinders firing was strangely serene yet troublesome -- and told me I needed to go get in my other SC2 if I intended to leave the house

 

I like to "keep a spare" around the house, but lately, my eldest daughter has been monopolizing it -- NOTE TO SELF** Tell daughter's hubby to get her friggin' car fixed....

 

The relative silence of a rotating engine with no cylinders firing was strangely serene yet troublesome -- and told me I needed to go get in my other SC2 if I intended to leave the house
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I became familiar with this on a fuel injection conversion with an external fuel pump. And eventually realized the pick up in the tank was not located correctly to deal with the high flow volume caused by the fuel injection operation. Only the sound of silence occurred while climbing grades out in the middle of no where as the pump was not happy pumping air when the tank was below about 1/3 full and would burn out! Leaving me with the option of?
Walking ! Which was not why I owned a car. It got expensive carrying spare fuel pumps around until I figured out what was taking place.