Originally Posted by supton
My parents had an '87 Astrovan that ate a fuel pump w/in warranty I think (back then it was what, 2yr/24k, or maybe it was 3yr/36k?). It was in short order. It then did 200k+ on the replacement pump.
The wife and I routinely run down to E on our tanks. I did have one fail, but it was a VW, so does that count?
To its credit, it was around 255k, and the model was known for that failure mode, so I don't think it counts.
IMO the bit about "you shouldn't run to E" is model specific and may not be a problem anymore.
My parents had 2 failure prone vehicles years back (98 GMC Safari and 99 olds Alero), working in the auto industry I saw a number of those types of vehicles fail. Neither of ours did, which may have something to do with my parents not running low on fuel. The Alero gas gauge did fail and my sister ran it out of fuel once or twice before they figured it out and started using the trip meter for refueling in time.
A 2002 GMC Sierra my employer had for years needed a fuel pump at 110k miles, the guy who drove it always let it run low and the gauge was looking erratic by that time. The 2005 Silverado I just bought from the boss (getting paid mileage to keep using it) only had the pump replaced because the sending unit rusted out and started leaking at 170k miles.
Sometimes the replacement part quality is really sketchy and that can be a problem.
I imagine Toyota has whatever issue the supplier had sorted out by now.