My wife has a 1996 GMC Jimmy and the thing only has 112,000 miles on it, but it's hit a nasty bit of repairs lately. I did the battery, alternator and starter within the past year.

Now, it's having problems starting. Mechanic says it's a bad fuel pump (notorious for this model) and it's going to cost $650 to drop the tank and replace it.

I think the truck is worth about $4000 last time I checked the blue book.

Should I go ahead and replace it? It's not like we can afford a better car right now, but I've already sunk like $400 into it in the past year.

I hate having older cars.

maybe sell it and get another GP with the 4k?

and x2 with having older cars.. i hate it

No, we need a truck for my daughter and the outdoor stuff we do.

4k doesn't get much of a SUV/minivan these days. I figure the payments on a new car would be much more than the fuel pump...

Do the fuel pump yourself.

How tough is it to drop a fuel tank and do the fuel pump? I've never done it before.

i wouldnt imagine it will be easy, but im sure its doable. My time is always more abundant than my money

Me and my buddy changed his fuel pump on his S-10. It's not really that bad to drop the fuel tank, just make sure you have as little gas in it as possible. Be sure to use a brass mallet to knock the ring loose around the fuel pump, don't want to be creating any sparks around the fuel. Once you get the ring unscrewed the pump will come right out.

I was wondering more whether I should just sell it as is, or replace the pump. Sounds like you all suggest I replace the pump. That's where I was leaning anyways.

I'll just pay the shop to do it. Money isn't abundant but neither is my time. My house is on the market and I cannot afford to have a half assembled truck in my garage/driveway if someone decides to come see my house. Plus this weekend is an open house and the next two weekends I'm on vacation.

I'm just not thrilled about spending 25% of the value of this truck on a single repair.

I think if I did it myself it would still be pretty expensive though. Pumps look to be about $350 and I'd have to buy several of the tools required to do the job. Right now with the hastle of selling my house I think I'd rather pay someone $200 to mess with it.

Unfortunately that's what happens when you own an older vehicle and you pay others to do the work.

Another way to look at it is $600 for this one fix or $500 a month for the next 60+ months. Plus with you trying to sell the house and chances are you'll want to buy another having multiple car loans could hurt your chances at a home loan. Esp. this day in age with so many forclosures.

Do the fuel pump yourself, i recently replaced mine on my 96 blazer (same vehicle) and it wasnt to hard of a fix, maybe 3 hours tops.

Fix the truck because you will regret getting another car with payments. I got a big bonus at work february past and I was going to get a new gp at one point but Im just going to pay this gp off and keep it because of the gas prices.

But things like this will happen because of how old the car is. Mine rule of thumb is keep a car no longer than 10 years or 250,000 miles unless its a classic car like a 50, 60's, etc.

Yeah I decided to have them fix it. I waited too long though, and the part is on order so they had to keep it for the weekend. Oh well, at least it's not in my drive way torn apart.

I know how you feel exactly...recently I had to pay to have a fuel pump put in my sons car...and it was about $400 installed (it has an access panel in the trunk)...the worst of it is that I dont think the whole car is worth $400...but its all he's got so ya gotta go with what ya have until you can do better. Tough choices with older cars but just like Herc was saying...its either one repair or more payments.

Its easy to drop the tanks, Ive done few of em on s-series trucks and suvs before