Fuel pump failure on the 1999 GMC Sierra 1500
Only 2 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When fuel pump failure gets reported
There are 2 reports of fuel pump failure on the 1999 GMC Sierra 1500, 2 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 19th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 34,250 miles | — | — |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Putting it right typically runs $600–$2,600 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 12 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2015, at a median of 20 miles, and latest on the 2011 at 175,000 miles.
By volume the 2020 carries the most reports, with 14; the 1999 has 0. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
The first time I bought the vehicle it overflowed fuel when I filled the fuel tank to it's capacity. I assumed a vent line was loose, but knew it would be a big job to drop the fuel tank and check, so I just limited the amount of fuel I would fill the tank with. On jan 5, 2007, the fuel pump quit working and after dropping the tank no vent line was found to be loose. Upon further investigation, I determined the fuel pump mounting flange on the tank was about half connected, thus where the fuel would leak from when the tank was filled to capacity. It appeared the mounting flange is fused on and there was not an adequate bon made. It was on about 1/32" wide for 180 degrees and only about 1/16" wide the other 180 degrees. I have since repaired the tank using a product called jb weld and also installing (4) #10 machines screws with washers and locking nuts holding the flange to the tank. *jb
After the warranty ran out and at about 60,000 miles the transmission started shifting hard from first to second gear. The check engine light started coming on intermittently. When the engine code was checked it was the 1870 transmission slippage code. After checking online there were hundreds of other customers with the same problem. I took it to the dealer after the condition worsened and the dealer recommended replacing the transmission without even seeing the problem duplicated. This should have been a recall item years ago. I have had to replace the electronic fuel pump twice. Online there were numbers of customers with this save replacement problem. I have an older vehicle that have never had the fuel pump replaced. *nm
Also reported on the 1999 GMC Sierra 1500
Loss of braking
ABS module or sensor failure
Brake line, hose or caliper failure
Other brake problem
Other body or interior problem
Parking brake failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 2 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 2 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does fuel pump failure happen on the 1999 GMC Sierra 1500?
Across 2 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 35,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is fuel pump failure on the 1999 GMC Sierra 1500?
2 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed