fuel gage

[ahatley]

Hello again- same car, different question/problem. Have any of you encountered a fuel gage that reads full for the first 8 or so gallons, and then moves to what it should be actually. Since so many of the other electronics allow for some modifications, maybe the fuel gage has a calibration technique. Any suggestions? thanks, Andy

[treeboy38]

It's happened to mine to. Although it's wiered, it usually resolves itself.

[ahatley]

thanks, I do not give it much hope by itself though. Andy

[dsatt12]

This is funny to me that you guys brought this up. I just did this tonight on my way to work. I had about 1/3 or the way past 1/2 towards 3/4 of a tank according to the gauge, yet I managed to put 13 gallons in a 17 gallon gas tank.

I think if anything my symptoms are more pronounced than what you describe. 1/4=damn near empty in my car- and it goes down everytime I shut off the car in that situation too (to something more accurate no doubt). I'm not holding out hope that it's fixable. There's been poeple on the forums here that changed out the sending unit back there to no avail. I figure I have a good idea of how much gas I have and that's all that matters.

[RoraStar96]

As a ground rule with ANY GM product, never let the gage get lower then 1/4 tank.

[treeboy38]

Originally Posted by RoraStar96

As a ground rule with ANY GM product, never let the gage get lower then 1/4 tank.

Why?

[RoraStar96]

Bad senders, I have heard a lot of stories how certain fuels have additives that rot out some of the contacts in the sensors and send false data (personally i think its an old wives tale) and ever notice how far the needle goes past F when you ra the tank full?

It stays in that position for almost 150kms (90 miles before coming down to F. Thats almost 20-25% of the tank used. This is consistant with any GM car I have owned, or been in.

[drrodder]

My '96 does that too. The computer center FUEL is lot more accurate. Once in a while it will be right on, but most of the time it’s off. When it get down to the last ¼. Then it’s accurate again. I have checked the mileage to the gallons and the command center is with in 0.2 gallons aver time. DON’T DRIVE THESE CARS ON EMPTY!

[mikelebo99]

I have the same problem with my 98 w/52k on it. I also have had another problem that was in another thread previously discussed. I would fill up and for the first 50 miles or so the gauge would drop to Empty and the low fuel warning came on, but 2 seconds later the gauge would go back up to full. I was told in the other thread that it was the sensor flaking out also.

This is obviously a poor quality part for such a nice car.