If you own enough vehicles with an electric fuel pump, eventually it's likely that your luck will run out and you'll find yourself with a vehicle that refuses to operate properly due to a lack of go-juice. Most modern vehicles place the pump in the tank where it can be kept cool with a constant bath of fuel, but this location isn't so ideal when it comes time to replace that troublesome component. Fortunately, the task usually isn't quite as daunting as it may first appear, and tackling this project yourself can save several hundred dollars.
Fuel pumps can either fail outright, in which case the vehicle will simply refuse to run, or they will lose pressure over time, causing a slow and sometimes not easily noticed drop-off in performance and drivability. Increased fuel pump noise (it's the whine coming from the area of the tank) or longer cranking times are often signs that your fuel pump may not have much longer to go.