97 Lumina Fuel Pump OEM vs Aftermarket

[teegolf]

Have a 1997 Lumina with 3.1 engine and 180,000 miles. Fuel gauge not working so dropped the tank and sender is bad. My gut tells me to replace both pump and sender. Question is the pump assemblies are priced all over the board. Anywhere from $577 at Chevy, $295 at auto parts store, and $75 to $125 on EBay and Amazon. Question is does anybody have experience good or bad with the auto parts store pumps or the low ball internet pumps?

Thanks for any input!

[rkvons]

I bought a '98 Monte off of someone and it had a similar issue. Sender was bad, but pump okay. I also felt I should change the pump, so I bought one from Advance Auto for ~$200. It has been okay for 2 years now.

[jimbob0077]

Same car and year. My pump went at about 40k miles. At that time I had a mechanic that I trusted tell me not to put an aftermarket pump in as he had to many problems with them. So I found a OEM pump and he put it in. Car now has 140,000 miles. No problems. Note RockAuto sells OEM pump with sender. ACDELCO Part # MU1788. $265.79. Remember the key to parts. History of failure with that type part, difficulty to change the part, how long the original part lasted. For $65 difference, I would put the OEM part in from Rockauto or best price for OEM.

[rkvons]

Oh I agree. OEM is the best. I went into the job with the intention of replacing just the level sending unit. But after I had it all apart and saw the condition of the pump after 13 years and 190K miles, I had to change it. Since it was all apart halfway in my garage, I could not order one. So I resorted to aftermarket. My wife's level sender is going out on her vehicle and I plan to have an OEM unit on hand before I open it up.

[bsr2002]

I got lucky, a freshly wrecked Lumina at the junkyard... been in my car for 2 yrs now... $80