hawktroy

I recently purchased a 2004 F-150 and noticed a fuel smell from time to time. Then I filled it up one day and noticed fuel leaking profusely from the tank as I was screwing the gas cap back on. I must've left about a gallon of fuel sitting on the ground at my local Texaco station. Dropped the tank today and I'm not quite sure what to make of the fuel pump assembly. From the attached pics you can see a series of deep cracks. After I removed the pump assembly I held it up to the light and you can see daylight through those cracks. I guess that explains the leaky fillup/gas smell/and "check gas cap" indicator. For the life of me i can't figure out what caused this. Maybe a bad batch of plastic?? Only other clue i have is that it looks like a family of squirrels had made a home on top of the tank at one time. (Previous owner was an elderly gentleman and the truck hadn't been driven for several months) Maybe squirrel urine is corrosive?? Would be interested to know if anyone else has run across anything like this.

aoessand

When I cleaned the throttle body and maf on my truck there was over a handful of pine needles in the fender where the air tubing connects. And the previous owner drove it daily he said so yea I could only imagine what a target a sitting truck would be lol.

leopold

Is it a oem pump. If not it could be a cheap aftermarket one.

hawktroy

I'll have to take a closer look at it. I took it out to my folks farm yesterday to show my dad and then forgot to bring it home. I didn't see any manufacturer's marks when i first pulled the pump assembly out, but i honestly didn't look too closely. It's a very low mileage truck (39K miles when i got it in March) so I'd be surprised if it were aftermarket.

Speaking of aftermarket, I decided to purchase the Airtex fuel pump assembly. It was about $160 when buying online. Would've preferred to go with the Bosch fuel pump, but the best deal i could find for that was $300. It's a bit of a gamble, but now that I've learned how to pull the gas tank I figure it won't be too much hassle to replace it a second time. Here's hoping

primalurges

Looks as is there is metal in the plastic that corroded, expanded, and cracked the plastic. Weird however on a positive note your problem was resolved unlike other F150 gremlins.

bobkyle2

Airtex is good.I usually use there pumps.