Fuel Gauge Reading Wacky

[ricco750]

OK, so I start up my Ex yesterday afternoon, and performed a quick scan of my instrument panel as I always do. Something looked weird, and then I noticed my fuel gauge was reading completely full...and I knew that was wrong, that I had about an eighth of a tank left. As I drove, the needle slowly dropped down to the correct level, and this took about five minutes. Any thoughts on the cause here? Thanks!

 

[BrooklynBay]

It sounds similar to this TSB, but this TSB is for a different year vehicle that what you have: http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1612845&postcount=2

 

[Maniak]

IIRC when you short the sending unit wire it reads full. Is it possible you have a frayed wire that "shorted" for a second to make the gauge read full and then when the wire shifted it went back to reading the correct value?

~Mark