94 firebird fuel problem

My 16 yo daughter purchased a 94 firebird with 70,000 miles in June of this year. It is a very clean car with just one issue- it has trouble starting when the gas gauge reads under 1/2 tank. If we keep it over the 1/2 tank mark it starts perfect. What do you think the cause could be? Help!

The fuel pump is probably struggling trying to sip up the gas. The gas gauge is a notorious problem on these cars. In fact, when I first started driving my Firebird, my gas gauge read that I still had a 1/4 tank of gas, but yet I broke down and was stuck on the side of the road... with no gas in the tank. With the way the tank is designed, sort of like a "V", it causes the gas gauge to read inaccurately. The gas tank holds 15.5 gallons, and when your gauge reads 1/4 low, you've used around 10 gallons. At least that's how it is in my case with my '95. Best thing to do is just fill the car all the way up, drive until it reads a 1/4 low, and fill it up to see how much it takes and how low it actually was. That's how I figured mine out. You'll probably also notice that when making sharp turns the gas gauge also goes down near the empty mark, and then slowly comes back up. Really shows how inaccurate the gas gauge is.

The best thing to do really is keep the car topped off, and not letting the fuel level get so low. The thing about the fuel pump, is that it is located inside the gas tank (a pain to replace), and the gas inside actually helps to cool off the fuel pump. When you run low on gas, there's not alot of fluid in the tank to help keep your fuel pump from getting too hot, which results in a shortened life span.

Hope this helps, and welcome to the forums!