This is the 3rd time a fuel pump has gone out on me with this trick. Original fuel pump lasted about 180,000 miles, so I threw in whatever I was able to get at OReilly, which lasted about 40,000 miles, then put in another off brand pump that lasted about 40,000 miles.

I'm tired of dropping this tank every few years for the same issue. I'm considering grabbing an actual Motorcraft fuel pump off Amazon for $280 shipped.

Does anyone have any recommendations on decent brands or those rebuild kits?

Thanks in advance!

 

How many more miles do you plan to put on this Explorer? If the answer is something less than 40k miles, you may as well go with another inexpensive off-brand. I've read of several complaints on the Airtex pumps, but also about as much praise for them, so it kind of washes out. I've really not read anything negative about the Motorcraft pumps though. Walbro seems to get a lot of praise, but I'm not sure they'd be any less expensive than an OEM Motorcraft pump.

-Rod

 

Definitely a good way to think about it. This truck is at 240,000 miles now. Everything is very solid, so I'll probably drive it until the tranny goes out (no telling when that might be). I just want it to be reliable. I'm getting good at this procedure, so the labor isn't a big deal. I just don't want to get stranded out in the middle of nowhere.

 

Motorcraft or Walbro only. I feel your pain, I've been through that cycle as well. Airtex is junk. They work fine if you do short drives, anything longer than about 30-45 minutes starts to make the off-brand pumps show their true colors.

 

Ended up ordering a Motorcraft off of Amazon for $280 shipped. It was about $500 from O'Reilly and they would have had to order it anyways.