Thursday, January 6, 2011

Fuel Pump

On Monday night after work, the caravan would not start. It was somewhat cold that night at 2°F, but not cold enough to be considered excusable behavior. Surely, it wasn't a bad battery (new - 2007.06.01) or starter (rebuilt - 2007.06.13). I went inside for a few minutes and then tried it again. Same thing. So I hitched a ride from a local and went home for the night.

The next day at work I tried starting the caravan again. Boo! Luckily for me, my mechanic's shop is less than half a mile, downhill, from where I collect my employment checks. With the transmission in neutral, Vern (one of the 2 mechanics) pushed the van with his truck that has a wooden push bumper on the front to get the van through the intersection. It was all downhill past the intersection, thanks gravity.

The reason the van wasn't starting was because it was not getting any fuel. The fuel pump needed to be replaced forthwith. Along with the new fuel pump unit, I needed one foot of fuel injector hose, one foot of fuel line hose, and five hose clamps.

The other mechanic (I don't recall his name) said I will likely need to replace the serpentine belt sometime this year. I believe the last time it was replaced was 2006.01.09, when the transmission was rebuilt (158,589 miles).

Caravan odometer = 175,707 miles

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