2007 Cobalt LS with fuel pump problems. Need help!

Mashumaro

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Okay, so Saturday the 28th, I was heading over to go to my mother's house an hour away and needed to get gas considering I only had 1/8th of a tank left. I stopped at a Shell station and put $15 worth of gasoline in my car, so I know for a fact that there is gas in the tank! When I got done putting gas in, I got back in my car to start it up, but it wouldn't start. The engine would turn but that's all it would do. I had no problems cranking it and starting it when I initially left from my house, or the day before when I went to get groceries, so I don't know what the problem could possibly be. My husband called his friend who knows a good bit about cars to come and see what he thought the problem is, and he got me to try and start the car so he could listen to the engine and he said it sounded like it wasn't getting gas. He then had me turn the key to the ACC position to see if he could hear the fuel pump priming, and he didn't hear it. Mind you, my car was at a gas station by a busy intersection on Memorial Day weekend so there were cars everywhere and cops on motorcycles pulling people over left and right. My mom also said it might be the fuel pump too, because she has a bit of experience diagnosing cars after watching my dad do it for so many years. The concern we all had was this clicking sound when I started it.
(I may try to upload an audio file later of what it sounds like when I try to start my car if I'm allowed to do so, this is the first time making a post on this site so I'm not sure.)
Earlier today when my mom was bringing me back home, we stopped by AutoZone and O'Reilly's to see if they would allow us to borrow a OBD-2 scanner so I could diagnose my problem, but they told me that my car had to actually be at the store to do it. I guess where my mom lives, they allow you to borrow them if you leave a valid ID with them. Not here! I can't say I blame them though -- they're pretty expensive. But just a few minutes ago, I went outside to see if I could hear the fuel pump turn on since it's a whole lot quieter outside since it's late and there's not a busy road nearby. I turned my my to the ACC position and didn't hear it, so I turned it back off for a few seconds and tried again. I kept doing this for a minute or two just to make sure that the problem we were having at the gas station wasn't just noise pollution, and sure enough I heard it hum for about 4 seconds. I tried starting it immediately after I heard it but it just wouldn't start. I know Chevrolet vehicles, or GM vehicles in general, have had electrical issues in the past because I've had problems with mine and my cousin who owns a Chevrolet truck has had similar problems to what I've been having. Not to mention that I have looked up what could be the reason my coolant wasn't reading about 90% of the time and causing my A/C not to work. I found quite a few people having that same problem, along with many others that I've also had. Additional information about these problems will be discussed if requested.

Some useful information: Everything that has been recalled, I have taken in to get fixed. When I first got my car, the fuel pump problem was the one that was out. The guys at Chevrolet said that mine had already been replaced. If it had been replaced, then why was I smelling a strong gas smell inside AND outside of my car?? It took FOUR YEARS and the threat of a lawsuit (if something were to happen to me) to get them to finally replace it. So the fuel pump is only three years old. I don't know if they just put a crappy one in there to get us to leave them alone, but for some reason it's not working quite right now.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to take my car to a mechanic just yet if I can help it.
 

Mashumaro

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UPDATE: I just noticed there's a better area for me to post this in, so I'll copy and paste this into the Tech section. If someone could remove this post, feel free to.
 

Mashumaro

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Okay, so Saturday the 28th, I was heading over to go to my mother's house an hour away and needed to get gas considering I only had 1/8th of a tank left. I stopped at a Shell station and put $15 worth of gasoline in my car, so I know for a fact that there is gas in the tank! When I got done putting gas in, I got back in my car to start it up, but it wouldn't start. The engine would turn but that's all it would do. I had no problems cranking it and starting it when I initially left from my house, or the day before when I went to get groceries, so I don't know what the problem could possibly be. My husband called his friend who knows a good bit about cars to come and see what he thought the problem is, and he got me to try and start the car so he could listen to the engine and he said it sounded like it wasn't getting gas. He then had me turn the key to the ACC position to see if he could hear the fuel pump priming, and he didn't hear it. Mind you, my car was at a gas station by a busy intersection on Memorial Day weekend so there were cars everywhere and cops on motorcycles pulling people over left and right. My mom also said it might be the fuel pump too, because she has a bit of experience diagnosing cars after watching my dad do it for so many years. The concern we all had was this clicking sound when I started it.
(I may try to upload an audio file later of what it sounds like when I try to start my car if I'm allowed to do so, this is the first time making a post on this site so I'm not sure.)
Earlier today when my mom was bringing me back home, we stopped by AutoZone and O'Reilly's to see if they would allow us to borrow a OBD-2 scanner so I could diagnose my problem, but they told me that my car had to actually be at the store to do it. I guess where my mom lives, they allow you to borrow them if you leave a valid ID with them. Not here! I can't say I blame them though -- they're pretty expensive. But just a few minutes ago, I went outside to see if I could hear the fuel pump turn on since it's a whole lot quieter outside since it's late and there's not a busy road nearby. I turned my my to the ACC position and didn't hear it, so I turned it back off for a few seconds and tried again. I kept doing this for a minute or two just to make sure that the problem we were having at the gas station wasn't just noise pollution, and sure enough I heard it hum for about 4 seconds. I tried starting it immediately after I heard it but it just wouldn't start. I know Chevrolet vehicles, or GM vehicles in general, have had electrical issues in the past because I've had problems with mine and my cousin who owns a Chevrolet truck has had similar problems to what I've been having. Not to mention that I have looked up what could be the reason my coolant wasn't reading about 90% of the time and causing my A/C not to work. I found quite a few people having that same problem, along with many others that I've also had. Additional information about these problems will be discussed if requested.

Some useful information: Everything that has been recalled, I have taken in to get fixed. When I first got my car, the fuel pump problem was the one that was out. The guys at Chevrolet said that mine had already been replaced. If it had been replaced, then why was I smelling a strong gas smell inside AND outside of my car?? It took FOUR YEARS and the threat of a lawsuit (if something were to happen to me) to get them to finally replace it. So the fuel pump is only three years old. I don't know if they just put a crappy one in there to get us to leave them alone, but for some reason it's not working quite right now.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to take my car to a mechanic just yet if I can help it.
 

LSCobalt

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Okay, so Saturday the 28th, I was heading over to go to my mother's house an hour away and needed to get gas considering I only had 1/8th of a tank left. I stopped at a Shell station and put $15 worth of gasoline in my car, so I know for a fact that there is gas in the tank! When I got done putting gas in, I got back in my car to start it up, but it wouldn't start. The engine would turn but that's all it would do. I had no problems cranking it and starting it when I initially left from my house, or the day before when I went to get groceries, so I don't know what the problem could possibly be. My husband called his friend who knows a good bit about cars to come and see what he thought the problem is, and he got me to try and start the car so he could listen to the engine and he said it sounded like it wasn't getting gas. He then had me turn the key to the ACC position to see if he could hear the fuel pump priming, and he didn't hear it. Mind you, my car was at a gas station by a busy intersection on Memorial Day weekend so there were cars everywhere and cops on motorcycles pulling people over left and right. My mom also said it might be the fuel pump too, because she has a bit of experience diagnosing cars after watching my dad do it for so many years. The concern we all had was this clicking sound when I started it.
(I may try to upload an audio file later of what it sounds like when I try to start my car if I'm allowed to do so, this is the first time making a post on this site so I'm not sure.)
Earlier today when my mom was bringing me back home, we stopped by AutoZone and O'Reilly's to see if they would allow us to borrow a OBD-2 scanner so I could diagnose my problem, but they told me that my car had to actually be at the store to do it. I guess where my mom lives, they allow you to borrow them if you leave a valid ID with them. Not here! I can't say I blame them though -- they're pretty expensive. But just a few minutes ago, I went outside to see if I could hear the fuel pump turn on since it's a whole lot quieter outside since it's late and there's not a busy road nearby. I turned my my to the ACC position and didn't hear it, so I turned it back off for a few seconds and tried again. I kept doing this for a minute or two just to make sure that the problem we were having at the gas station wasn't just noise pollution, and sure enough I heard it hum for about 4 seconds. I tried starting it immediately after I heard it but it just wouldn't start. I know Chevrolet vehicles, or GM vehicles in general, have had electrical issues in the past because I've had problems with mine and my cousin who owns a Chevrolet truck has had similar problems to what I've been having. Not to mention that I have looked up what could be the reason my coolant wasn't reading about 90% of the time and causing my A/C not to work. I found quite a few people having that same problem, along with many others that I've also had. Additional information about these problems will be discussed if requested.

Some useful information: Everything that has been recalled, I have taken in to get fixed. When I first got my car, the fuel pump problem was the one that was out. The guys at Chevrolet said that mine had already been replaced. If it had been replaced, then why was I smelling a strong gas smell inside AND outside of my car?? It took FOUR YEARS and the threat of a lawsuit (if something were to happen to me) to get them to finally replace it. So the fuel pump is only three years old. I don't know if they just put a crappy one in there to get us to leave them alone, but for some reason it's not working quite right now.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to take my car to a mechanic just yet if I can help it.



I posted a message on May 18th after getting a check engine light. I bought a MaxiScan MS309 scanner on Ebay for $18 and was able to read a P0101 error code. The scanner is inexpensive and well worth the price.
 

Mashumaro

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I posted a message on May 18th after getting a check engine light. I bought a MaxiScan MS309 scanner on Ebay for $18 and was able to read a P0101 error code. The scanner is inexpensive and well worth the price.
Oh, well that's handy information. I'll definitely look into that if someone we know doesn't have one we can borrow. Husband's dad said he had one but getting over here is the issue since he seems to always be working.
 

YelloEye

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Have you checked the fuses controlling the fuel pump under your hood? There's a relay there for it as well so I'd check that too.

Mod note: I have merged the two threads into one. Please do not create duplicate threads, your concerns can be handled in this one :)
 

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