Looking to see if anyone has had any issues with their fuel gauge being off, reads empty, but I know its not empty, reads past full when full. Didn't know if there is a calibration method I don't know about or another issues. The tank and sender unit are both new.
mine reads past full when full , at 1/2 tank Im` down about 6-7 gal`s, at 1/4+_ im down 12 gals...remember that its an 18 gal tank, but you can never use the last 3 , at least it seems like...when I`m empty (run out) I can only put in 15- 15.5 gals...."air bubble" is what I`ve heard, b/c of 'leaning tank'
in my Volvos I`ve been able to run down to the last 1/2 gal. w/o a problem , just dont dare it in the Bird
I just had the same. New tank and gauge. I checked to make sure my ground was good at tank. Also the lt.brown wire in the trunk to the tank is hot. My gauge would read way passed Empty. It was a loose wire to the fuse box. Lt. Brown wire. Just a thought
I had to right a wrong with my cammers fuel gauge. When on empty I would have about a half tank. I had the dash out for some other repairs, and tested the instrument cluster and fuel gauge. Everything checked out and I made sure of a solid ground conection to the dash bezel.
I still had the fuel gauge reading the same. So out came the tank. When the tank was out, I found the PO had routed the sender's ground to an incorrect location. He added a length of different gauge wire through to the inside of the trunk.
I thought I had found the smoking gun with that PO repair. But before everything went back together I tested the sender to see if it's values were correct, and they were. I also made sure the senders float was in the same position as my old sender from my convertible. The floats were identical in the empty and full positions.
With everything back together, I filled the cammer, and it still has the same problem. When reading empty, it only takes ten gallons to fill it.
I plan on removing the tank again and bending the sender arm. I hate to do it that way, but I've run out of ideas on what else could be wrong.
That's why they call it a guage; otherwise, it would be called an accurate. The reason it reads empty when it still has gas accomidating the idiots in the population. There is always some sfb who insists that they run it until it's empty. But the empty while still fuel isn't always the case. It is wise to view 1/4 to 1/8 as empty. Based on the average credit card debt per American, it's obvious that operating within the budjet, rather than overspending is a hard concept to grasp. So it's a waste of time trying mentioning that a guage reading empty is bad news.
Tom, when you say it only takes ten gallons to fill it, you leave out an important part of the equasion: How much gas is in the tank when the guage reads empty? The fgf tank won't hold its rated capacity. Mine is pretty generous: I can pack exactly 13.3 gallons in my 18 gallon tank.
The car was designed to only hold 10 to 13 gallons of gas. (I've heard rumor of people able to get around 16 gallons in.) It's because Pontiac was one of the more clever competetors during the performance wars. NHRA required cars to have at least 18 gallon tanks. During a drag race, the tank had to be full. The definition of full was up to the filler neck. The solution was to tilt the tank so is has a 5 to 8 gallon air bubble when full to the filler neck, reducing total vehicle weight. And according to the way the rules were described, it was totally legal. Shortly thereafer, the definition of a full tank was changed from full to the neck to having 18 gallons of fuel in it.
mine holds 15 to 15.5 in the 18 gal tank.... thats why when I first bought the car and ran out (gauge wasnt working) and I filled it with 15 gals...I "Knew" someone had put the wrong tank on it ,and as I replaced it with the correct tank, I STILL only got 15 gals in the 18 gal tank! live and learn...
but I do remember filling up in 69 when we had a gas price war here and it was $0.19.9/gal that I paid just about $3.00 for a fill up in my 68 = 15 gals!
