I own a 2003 Limited with the 6.8 V10. I drove the truck on Sunday and all appeared to be fine, gas gauge was setting just under a half tank. When I went to start it yesterday, it would not start. Strong crank, no start. I checked my fuse and it was fine.
Fast forward to this morning, since I had kind of depleted the battery with attempting to start, I put my little jump start pack on it and gave it a whirl. Truck started fine but the gas gauge was sitting on empty. I had five gallons of gas in the garage so I added that to the tank then drove to the local gas station to add more fuel. I put another 10 gallons in the tank so it should have roughly 16 or 17 gallons in the tank. Gauge shows 3/4 tank but miles to empty is right around 175 miles which would seem right with 17 gallons in the tank.
I suspect the fuel pump. I don't really want to spend $500 on the Motorcraft unit but was wondering if the group believes the Delphi or the Bosch units are quality replacement parts? I can get those for roughly $130.
Thanks!

 

Motorcraft is $300 from Amazon or Rock Auto the last time I priced them out...

 

There were 2 different pumps used on these trucks, if your rig is California spec it uses a different one than the non-Cali trucks That is for the complete fuel pump/pickup/level sender/hoses kit, if you just want to replace the actual pump cartridge that part can be had for much less and is the same for both variations.
There is supposed to a sticker under the hood identifying the Cali trucks but my Ex doesn't have the sticker but it IS a Cali rig.

This picture shows the two pump styles, my old Cali pump is the upper one and the lower one is a new (but wrong) Motorcraft non-Cali pump assembly. The difference is the Cali trucks had a vapor pressure sensor mounted in the tank lid that the non-Cali trucks don't have.

 

[QUOTE=mrmurph;15941546]I own a 2003 Limited with the 6.8 V10. I drove the truck on Sunday and all appeared to be fine, gas gauge was setting just under a half tank. When I went to start it yesterday, it would not start. Strong crank, no start. I checked my fuse and it was fine.
Fast forward to this morning, since I had kind of depleted the battery with attempting to start, I put my little jump start pack on it and gave it a whirl. Truck started fine but the gas gauge was sitting on empty. I had five gallons of gas in the garage so I added that to the tank then drove to the local gas station to add more fuel. I put another 10 gallons in the tank so it should have roughly 16 or 17 gallons in the tank. Gauge shows 3/4 tank but miles to empty is right around 175 miles which would seem right with 17 gallons in the tank.
I suspect the fuel pump. I don't really want to spend $500 on the Motorcraft unit but was wondering if the group believes the Delphi or the Bosch units are quality replacement parts? I can get those for roughly $130.
Thanks

 

Just to clarify,

It sounds like the problem is the fuel gauge sending unit and not the pump.

 

Rockauto.com Pick your brand, About $120 or so.

 

When I did mine about 8 years ago, I think I got the Airtex brand, but pump only. No issues since. I think the pump was like $60 or less back then.

 

i recently has to do a fuel pump in my 6.8 2005.

The rig wouldn't start..while diagnosing the problem, the gauge read lower and lower. I put in a new complete fuel pump/sending unit from Ford and all was well.

When I bought the pump, my dealer told me to keep the receipt because there's a guarantee of (if memory serves) $100-$125 if it fails to pay for labor.