fixing the gas guage

my fuel gage has been way off since i bought my 89 crx dx about a year and a half ago. i first noticed it on my first fillup just after i bought it. i thought it was at half a tank. mom stopped for gas, so i thought i'd top off my tank as well... turns out i only put in about 2 1/2 gallons.

i typically drive my car till i get to the red line above the E. this gets me around 250 - 280 miles depending on how far i push it, and how i've been driving (city or interstate). whenever i stop to fill up, it's usually anywhere between 6 1/2 to 8 gallons.

first of all, i'm assuming the gas tank on the crx is 10 gallons. am i correct? even on a bad day of fuel consumption (if i only got 30 mpg) i'd be able to go around 300 miles before needing to fill up. typically i get about 35 mpg or greater depending on what percentage of my driving is interstate. if 100 percent is interstate then i CAN get 40 mpg or more. sounds insane that city driving would consume THAT much more gas, but i've calculated it over and over again.

secondly, how do i go about fixing this problem. i'm sure it could be the float in the tank itself, or it could be the gague in the cluster... OR, since there is an aftermarket "glow" faceplate on my guage cluster (that has never worked and i'd remove if i could figure out how) maybe the markings on the aftermarket guage face is off or misaligned.

when i fill my tank up on any car i've ever owned, filling it all the way to where the gas pump clicks off puts the gas guage needle above the Full line. in my car, even forcing couple cents extra in after the pump automatically clicks off, does not raise the needle to the Full mark. usually it raises it to within an eighth of a tank below, but on a rare occasion, it actually will just barely graze the bottom of the Full marking.

i've never been brave enough to take extra gas with me and actually let my car run out of gas just to see how many miles i can go and how far below the Empty marking the guage will go before i really need to fill up.

anyone ever fixed this issue? any advice would be helpful. i'm gonna start working on the issue when i get the time, starting with removing the aftermarket guage cluster face. if it's the float in the tank that's the problem, can it simply be removed and cleaned, or must it be replaced entirely, and is that expensive/difficult?

thanks in advance. i always enjoy reading input from this forum. i'm working gradually to restore this car to its original stock beauty one piece at a time. by the end i'll have replaced the axe blade and its handle, metaphorically speaking.

i am having the same problem as well, I am thinking its my fuel sending unit in the tank

oh yea, when my gauge read correctly, when I topped off my tank, it would go way up a little past the F. Now when I do it, It does not even reach the F line.

Yeah i have the same problem ironically enough i was just talkin to cjzcivic about this problem this morning, Its the fuel sending unit, its not in the tank it sets on top, remove your seat, or the storage compartment if you own a rex, and its three screws and its off..........

oh yea, when my gauge read correctly, when I topped off my tank, it would go way up a little past the F. Now when I do it, It does not even reach the F line.


great. i'll take a look at that tomorrow morning to see if there's anything obviously wrong with it... something adjustable/fixable more than likely since it still does sense fuel level with relatively consistant inaccuracy. i've heard of people adjusting resistance on something and fixing gas guages, but it wasn't even a honda they were talking about.