My 05 2500 4x4 quad cab is all stock with 125K on the clock. It has stalled on me 2 times recently when its a 1/4 tank or a pinch less. No check engine lights are on. Have taken it to when the low fuel light comes on in the past with no problems.
Is there a stock draw straw that could be the problem or do I have to change out the whole assembly.
Or whats the symptoms of a bad lift pump?
Thanks

 

Is your truck used or are you the original owner? most of the time when your lift pump fails it will leave you dead on the road. There are a few instances where it will stop working then start working again. this usually happens more frequently then your tank going to 1/4. There is a chance your float unit to your gauge is bad and you really are sucking fumes at 1/4 tank.

Do you know if you have the intank pump or the one behind your fuel filter? When was the last time you changed your fuel filter?

In your tank, you have a reservoir where your fuel is pumped into and kept full even though your tank may be lower. this is where the stock lift pump pulls fuel from.

 

Unless it's been modified with an aftermarket pump, it will have a pump in the tank that has the gauge sending unit and everything built all together. I've heard of instances where this exact issue happens on these trucks. i think it's more of a sending unit issue. unfortunately, being in the tank it can be difficult to deal with. there are aftermarket draw straw kits, but they won't do you any good if your pump is in your tank already. It's really not that bad to get to the tank by lifting the bed. it's only like 6 or 8 bolts, a few ground straps, and some wires to unplug at the back. Two guys can tilt the bed and block it and you'll have direct access to the top of the tank where all the components are.

If it were me, in your shoes, I would lift the bed, remove the components and look at them. The float may can just be adjusted to compensate for the bad readings. The best situation would be to go ahead a deal with the fuel delivery system once and for all, which is really the weak part of these trucks.

I would get a drawstraw kit, a big line kit, which is a kit that replaces the stock fuel line to a 1/2" line, add an aftermarket remote mounted lift pump, add a fuel pressure gauge, which will tell ypu a whole lot about what's going on with fuel delivery at all times, and I would do the fuel tank mod that allows you to add about 5 or so more gallons at a fillup.

You can use the google advanced search to search the dieseltruckresource.com domain on each of the suggestions I've mentioned and get tons of good reading, which is the best advice I can give you. There's a ton of guys that have had this exact issue and a ton of what they've done to fix it buried in all the topics here. Google will find them for you.

 

"In your tank, you have a reservoir where your fuel is pumped into and kept full even though your tank may be lower. this is where the stock lift pump pulls fuel from."

The bottom of every tank I've ever seen is flat. I've never seen any reservoir that the pump pumps into and draw from. The top of the tank is oddly shaped, which actually has a section where some air become trapped and will not accept any fuel. that's what the fuel tank mod is all about. it adds a vent to the section to allow air to move so you can use it's capacity. He may end up with a new sending unit to solve his issue, and if it were me, there's no way I'd ever go back with a factory pump. I'd look towards getting a 03-04.0 sending unit with no pump and adding all the above stuff I mentioned.

 

Thanks guys, Its a 05 so it has a intank pump. I have owned it since 25k and it has no mods so its the stock set up.
I was considering a raptor 100, but money is a issue right now.

 

It'll be even tighter if you kill your IP. The common rail IP's seem to handle low fuel pressure better but still it won't hold forever.

 

Another avenue to take.

Drop the tank and pull the fuel pump module (pump/float assy). The fuel inlet screen on the bottom of the pump is most likely caked/clogged up. I've seen this first hand on a buddies truck. After a couple of days of troubleshooting (having the problem go away when the truck was filled), he finally just decided to pull the tank to change the pump. When he pulled the pump/filter assy and then got the pump out of the housing the inlet screen was caked with sludge with a few metal slivers in it. Total surface area that fuel was able to get through the screen was about the size of a dime. You can't get just the inlet screen, you have to buy the whole friggen pump and screen assy. He cleaned it/agitated it with some kinda cleaner and said it looked like new when finished. After putting everything back together he was good to go. It has been over a year now and is still running fine.

Best explanation I can give is, with more fuel in the tank, there was more weight pushing down on the fuel at the bottom which helped feed the fuel through the inlet screen. As soon as the fuel level would decrease, the pump struggled to pull the fuel through the inlet screen.

 

In that case, I would guess that the bottom was more restricted than to top. I had the same thoughts but just didn't write them.

 

I know it does not fix it, but why not keep the truck up above half until you have more cash, seems like any easy fix.

 

Cause were guys. That would be too easy.