haul@ss Posted July 24, 2008 Report Share Posted July 24, 2008 So the truck continues to give me headaches: Due to gas prices, I've been driving my girls car and leaving the truck parked in the garage. After letting it sit for about a week, I go to start the truck and find the battery is dead. I have my friend look over my audio install to make sure that there are no loose wires or anything that can cause this and he confirms everything is good there. So we jump the truck and go for a drive and notice that the fuel level goes up and down. I get online to do some research and come up with these possible reasons: 1) Battery dies due to the BCM not shutting down the steering wheel position sensor even after truck is turned off - (I moved the steering wheel up and down to get dash parts off) 2) Fuel gauge is acting up due to a faulty instrument panel cluster I found that reason 1 could possibly be covered by recall ID 02066 but was quickly denied by the dealership because it only covers 2003 models. They also quickly found that reason 2 was not correct by hooking up a Tech II and doing an IPC sweep to show that the cluster was working fine. I left the truck at the dealership a few hours ago so that they could take a closer look at everything but they say it's most likely a bad fuel sending unit and it's going to cost me a whole lot of money to replace it.. They also said that it could be a bad wire somewhere along the fuel system that is causing the misreading AND battery drainage, but with my luck it'll be two huge separate problems! Does anyone have any advice on how I should approach a problem like this? Do I just have them replace the daym thing and pay dealership costs? Or do I buy a replacement part myself for cheaper and have a reputable shop do it? Does anyone know the correct part number or a similar part that'll work? I know the install requires to drop the tank and I'm definitely not attacking it myself so how many hours should it take so I know I'm not getting ripped off? Oh and if it matters, the truck has just under 40,500 miles... Is this a common problem? Of course I get the weird ones... Any other comments and suggestions are welcome. TIA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haul@ss Posted July 24, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 24, 2008 They just called back to confirm the sending unit is bad, and it's gonna cost me $688.23 in parts and labor!!!! WTF?! The truck isn't even 5 yrs old yet and its costing me so much already! Are these parts even supposed to go bad this early?! Someone shed some light on me because this just doesn't make sense... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fireman31 Posted July 24, 2008 Report Share Posted July 24, 2008 I would say that you should check for a loose fuel pump ground or a chaffed wiring harness........but the dealer has diagnosed it already. I could see the pump itself going bad if you run the gas tank near empty on a regular basis, but just the sending unit......i'm stumped too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haul@ss Posted July 24, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 24, 2008 (edited) Yeah, $700 is a bit steep for me right now, so I'm gonna have my friend who's had experience with this do it. Saves me a ton of money, but I'm still pissed that the unit would go bad so early! I'll have him look around and see if there's anything else wrong. Oh and btw, I'm getting charged $215.30 for having them take a look. I officially hate the dealership and their shop rates haha Oh and does anyone have a part number for another sending unit? Am I better off going with another brand since the stock one already went out? Should I replace anything else while I have the tank down? Edited July 24, 2008 by haul@ss (see edit history) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rausche Posted July 24, 2008 Report Share Posted July 24, 2008 Um... FWIW, the recall covers 2003 and 2004 model years (AFAIK). I wouldn't rule out the cluster just yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
70chevy03ss Posted July 24, 2008 Report Share Posted July 24, 2008 I had a problem where my heater control light would stay on after I shut the truck off. Tried to unplug the battery and still nothing. It would just drain my battery My father took it to a shop and said I needed to replace my heater controls. You really never know with fuel pumps and stuff. It can be done at your home or if your buddy can do it. Go down to NAPA and get a new one. Its not bad to change jus takes time and I hope its not a FULL tank... Good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zbishop80 Posted July 24, 2008 Report Share Posted July 24, 2008 They just called back to confirm the sending unit is bad, and it's gonna cost me $688.23 in parts and labor!!!! WTF?! The truck isn't even 5 yrs old yet and its costing me so much already! Are these parts even supposed to go bad this early?! Someone shed some light on me because this just doesn't make sense... I'm not sure about our SSS's but I know in previous years Chevy has been notorious for having there sending units take a dump. It happened in my '99 S-10 at about 40,000 miles. It wasnt draining my battery and a jumpy fuel guage never bothered me because it was my beater truck. I never wasted my time replacing the sending unit. Also to get around dropping the tank you may be able to remove the bed as one piece. In theory this sounds like more work but its really a time saver. There's 4 bolts, one at each corner of the bed, remove those plus the ground strap for the fuel neck and you should be able to remove the bed as one piece. This will take 2 or 3 strong young individuals to do but like I said its a time saver. After the bed is removed you can gain access to the top of the tank and in turn the fuel pump and sending unit. I did this on my buddies '98 Silverado to replace his fuel pump. Worked like a charm. Complete in 4-6 hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fireman31 Posted July 24, 2008 Report Share Posted July 24, 2008 I'm not sure about our SSS's but I know in previous years Chevy has been notorious for having there sending units take a dump. It happened in my '99 S-10 at about 40,000 miles. It wasnt draining my battery and a jumpy fuel guage never bothered me because it was my beater truck. I never wasted my time replacing the sending unit. It really was more of an issue of bad clusters then sending units on the mid-sized truck frames, from about 1995 to 2005. The biggest problem with the mid-size trucks were the fuel pumps.....they are horrible. I manage a 30 vehicle fleet, over 20 of our vehicles are Astro's '97-'05, and we replace 3-4 fuel pumps per year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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