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Am I CRAZY?!? Gas gauge weirdness...

M

michaelb721

New member
Help me out here if you can please!
What I've been seeing on my 98 GT's gas gauge has been giving me fits. For example: I'll drive on the highway for an hour and the gas gauge doesn't move a bit. I'll think, "Great! Excellent highway mpg!" Then it will suddenly "break loose," and when it does it's like it fell off a cliff. :P Another one: I was driving down a hill at about 45 mph, and had to make a really sharp turn to the left, and when I made the corner the gauge needle moved down about 1/8 of a tank from where it was, and stayed there! Now, unless my car is an absolute gas hog, I can't see it eating up 1/8 of a tank of fuel just going around ONE corner! But... it never came back up! :(

After searching around a bit, I think my problem might be the sending unit/float arm of the fuel pump sensor. Maybe.

Does that sound about right... or am I really crazy?!? Yowza!!! :P
 


Nah......the gas gauges on these cars are typical odd. These cars came with a 18 gallon tank. My gas gauge responds as if it were a 12 gallon tank. At half tank, its a fight to put 6 gallons in it. I even replaced the pump and sending unit. No change. I dunno if this is due to the gauges were just off from the factory or if there is a voltage break down due to age.
 
Mine is a little off but not too drastic. It will go a couple lines higher or lower depending on the driving I'm doing. Stopping and accelerating it will always go down but when sitting at a light I can watch it slowly go back up a line or two. I'd consider that normal. If it;s really jumping around like from 1/4 to a half then replacing the sending unit would not be a bad idea, our impala's gauge would go from full to empty randomly which was the sending unit.
 
I caught my 99 GTP doing a little of this the other day. Twice in a short period of time, actually. I figured its that $20 sender on the pump. But the issue has not occurred again in the several weeks since that happened, and I've been watching for it.
 
I go by the gallons used now instead the gas gauge. If you wanna see your real MPG may wanna get a OBD II bluetooth or other and use like Dash application on android to read this in real time.
 


if you really want to see your true mpg, do it the old way,

write your miles down, or set the trip, fill the tank till the pump clicks off the first time. drive the car till its low again, now fill it up the same way at the same station if possible. now divide the gallons you just put in the car and miles you have driven.

its the only true way to log your mpg avg and be 100% sure. oh, and its free lol
 
michaelb721 said:
Thank you! I feel a little less crazy now! :)
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You should see mine, always reads full. Untill you park then it drops to E. Shake the car and it jumps back up to full. Im be running on no gauge just DIC gallons used for about 2 years now. Cant be bothered to replace the level sensor because it will probably piss the pump off and it cost me a new pump.
 
wussey ^^^^^^ i revoke your brother status lol its a 20 dollar fix. pump dont know wtf is going on...its a inanimate object lol
 
Scottydoggs said:
wussey ^^^^^^ i revoke your brother status lol its a 20 dollar fix. pump dont know wtf is going on...its a inanimate object lol
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Noooooo, give it back. Its not I swear my car has feelings. Like when I replaced the speakers and broke the rear springs. The car is angry that im fixing its problems. Main reason I haven't touched the plugs, fuel level sensor, fuel filter, LIM or UIM gaskets. Im afraid of what its capable of.
 
Kyle your such a whimp. It took me about 2 hrs to install a new pump. And my gas gauge works just like the old one because I used the old float.
 


Russosaur said:
Noooooo, give it back. Its not I swear my car has feelings. Like when I replaced the speakers and broke the rear springs. The car is angry that im fixing its problems. Main reason I haven't touched the plugs, fuel level sensor, fuel filter, LIM or UIM gaskets. Im afraid of what its capable of.
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revoked!!!!!!!! lol fix that stuff. cars beak down, get used to it, unless your the reason it breaks when you try to fix it. :th_laugh-lol2:
 


Well now comes the part where I'm crazy. I must have got mixed up because it ain't $20 now. Add a hundred. But they send you two senders, from the look of this site:

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/moreinfo.php?pk=904318&cc=1357141

I think one day me and my friend had my fuel pump out and I asked about that so he pointed at the white plastic sensor and said it was a twenty dollar item. My bad. Thought I had surfed it up and confirmed that shortly thereafter. Good info one day is bad info the next. At least if I can't do anything about your car's feelings I can let you know you're not alone so maybe you'll feel less crazy.

I'd never rely on the tank / pipe to "top off" at exactly the same "fullness" each time. Shutoff sensitivity at individual gas pumps varies wildly in my opinion.
 
idrivejunk said:
Well now comes the part where I'm crazy. I must have got mixed up because it ain't $20 now. Add a hundred. But they send you two senders, from the look of this site:

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/moreinfo.php?pk=904318&cc=1357141

I think one day me and my friend had my fuel pump out and I asked about that so he pointed at the white plastic sensor and said it was a twenty dollar item. My bad. Thought I had surfed it up and confirmed that shortly thereafter. Good info one day is bad info the next. At least if I can't do anything about your car's feelings I can let you know you're not alone so maybe you'll feel less crazy.

I'd never rely on the tank / pipe to "top off" at exactly the same "fullness" each time. Shutoff sensitivity at individual gas pumps varies wildly in my opinion.
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The dorman one is a lot cheaper I just heard that the gasket might be too big and you have to re use your old one or buy one from the dealership.

Remeber if you use Rockauto to google for the 5% off coupon code

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