|
By Richard Riehm
Edited by Wes
Many thanks to Q45.org.
Unfortunately, I was not familiar with your web
site when this story started.
The fuel pump in my wife's '92 Q45 had been humming for years.
For a long
time, I thought it was the electric antenna running in the fender
well. I
went so far as to disconnected the wire harness for the antenna.
It did not
stop the humming, but I my gas flap wouldn't open after I did that, so
I
reconnected it. I finally figured out it only hummed while the
engine was
running so I assumed it was the fuel pump, but did nothing.
This summer @ 135K miles, my wife reported that her car sometimes
stuttered
taking off from a stop. We agreed it was probably time to
replace the fuel
pump before it went out. I took it to my local Pep Boys and the
nightmares
started. When we got it back, the gas gauge did not work and we
had gas
smell in the car. Each time, they had a different excuse and I
paid for
replacing the sending unit and gas tank straps.
I finally took it to a different shop for a second opinion. They
found that
the lip on the gas tank had been bent and only 2 screws were holding
the
fuel pump in place. He tried talking me into taking it back to
Pep Boys to
have them fix it. I told him to just try to do the best job he
could if it
were his 12 year old car. It didn't work. We still had a
significant gas
vapor in the car.
We decided to replace the gas tank. A new tank from Infiniti was
$600 plus
an additional $200 in labor. I decided to go the junkyard route.
I called
around and found 2 tanks for $65 and $100. The $65 place said he
had a part
puller that would pull it out of the junk car for us. I took him
up on
that, since I couldn't get my tank to budge.
To pull a gas tank is very straight forward. I would do the
following step,
in pretty much this order:
1. remove the cardboard panel from the back wall of the trunk using a
phillips
2. remove the metal bracket holding the gas tank in place using a 10mm
wrench
3. remove the bolts holding the gas tank straps to floor of the trunk
using
a 17mm wrench
4. loosen the 3 fuel lines at the top of the tank while the pump is
still
secure
5. using a small box wrench, remove the 6 screws holding the fuel pump
in
place
6. gently move the fuel pump to the side, siphon as much gas as
possible
into gas cans from the fuel pump hole (you can not get much gas out of
the
filler neck because of the baffles in the tank)
7. under the gas flap, remove 3 screws holding the filler neck to the
sidewall of the car
8. the metal fuel lines have a rubber joint just under the trunk,
climb
underneath to get them loose, make sure you mark which one goes where,
I
used tape to help me remember
9. your gas tank should be loose, GENTLY us a pry bar to lift the gas
tank,
it is sitting on a sticky material that breaks free quite easily
An empty gas tank with the filler assembly attached weighed less than
20
pounds, it was very easy to move around. I inspected the
junkyard gas tank.
There were no signs of rust or corrosion.
The junkyard offered to sell me the used fuel pump for $75. I
told him I
already had a new one, so he make me a package deal of $100 for the
tank and
pump. I thought I had a good deal until I compared the pumps
side by side.
The new pump had very clean, white socks in 2 places, where the
junkyard
socks were very brown and dirty.
Reassembly was very easy, except for reconnecting the fuel lines under
the
car. Like anytime working under car, I just had access and
lighting issues.
In all, including driving to and from the junk yard, I was done in 5
hours.
Probably 1.5 hours was driving back and forth.
|
