Fuel Gage Issues!! | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Fuel Gage Issues!!

Joined
June 12, 2011
Messages
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City, State
Langford, British Columbia
Year, Model & Trim Level
94 Ford Explorer Limited
I was having an issue with my fuel gage not registering all the time. every once in a while it will register up to full no matter how much fuel is in it and then it will go right down to Empty.
So I ordered a brand new pump and sending unit from rockauto.com last saturday. received it by fed ex in the mail this friday.
so today saturday I dropped my tank and removed the old noisey pump and that and put in the brand new one.
I then went and put brand new fuel into the tank a total of 15 liters/4 gallons and the gage is still reading empty considering it is a complete brand new sending unit and fuel pump.
does anyone have any other idea of what may be the problem with my gage as i am getting tired of watching the trip meter to figure out how much fuel i have.
Consider i now know i can go 405km/252miles to a tank of fuel.
If you are wondering you now know that 72 liters averages 405 kilometers or 20 gallons averages out to 252 miles per tank of fuel in a 94 Ford Explorer Limited Edition with 307000km/191000 miles.
So if anyone on here can possible help let me know please and thank you
 



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Sometimes I try to find a middle point in a problem and test it there to try and reduce the causes. You may be an electronic guy and I am telling you what you already know, but at least I have some data to help you.

The sender is a variable resistor. On empty, it is 22.4 ohms, and 145 ohms on a full tank. If you have a meter with an ohms resistance range you can test this by probing the Yellow/White wire with one lead, and connect the other lead to a ground. You can find the Yellow/White where it leaves the tank, or you can pick up this lead at one of the connectors with 8 wires under the master cylinder. before it goes to the firewall connector. Be sure to disconnect the connection, then measure the wire in the direction of the tank.

If the resistance is wrong, (like maybe zero ohms) then the problem is towards the tank, and may be a short in that wire to ground somewhere.

If the resistance is right (a quarter tank should be around 25-45 ohms) then the sender is fine and you need to look toward the gauges.

If you can do this and post back your measurement, we can go from there.

Good Luck!!!
 






Well unfortunately I am not "that guy" but I will give it a shot I was under the understanding it would be easier to just pull out the instrument cluster and check there but then again it could just be the plug to the fuse I am sure as well it is brand new pump and sending unit and the pump runs so much nicer and so does truck just the issue of the fuel gage.
 






Ok, well, you know where you would add brake fluid, that's the master cylinder. underneath that, in that general area, look for a connector with a Yellow/White wire. Open that connector. Now, one side will go into the firewall, that is, inside the car. The other end will go down underneath the car. Those wires end up at the fuel pump/sensor. That is the end I would measure on. Use an ohm meter and measure resistance from the white/yellow wire to ground and check for the values I described.

If you don't have an electronic meter, perhaps a friend does.

Did you just replace the pump or did you replace the entire pump/float assembly?
 






I just replaced everything sending unit fuel pump screen and new float as well
I just purchased an ohm meter myself so i will be testing this as of today thank you so much for the insight
 






Thank you so much i measured the ohms from the sending unit right at the tank and it read 27 ohm with key off.
and at the connection with key off it read 27 ohms under the master cylinder.
then with key on under the master cylinder connection the ohm meter read 33 ohms.
so I am thinking the problem is in the gages.
 






Well here is the news I have removed my instrument cluster found the harness with the yellow and white wire to the fuel gage and it reads the 33 ohms, same as the rest of the ohm testing.
so now i am figuring the back of my instrument clster is hooped so I will have to figure something out for now.
I am hopeing that taking it all apart my clean up all the connections and it will work properly now as well.
If not I may just hook up an external fuel gage and see if that works.
I will keep you posted
 






You may see that the gauge cluster is in blocks. The block containing the fuel gauge can be replaced separately from the rest of the cluster. However, there is also a small circuit in the flex of the cluster that does the smoothing of the fuel needle so it is not bouncing around all the time. That could also be an issue.

I think I would get a used cluster, and try swapping in the fuel gauge portion. If that did not work then maybe I would swap my existing spedometer into the purchased cluster and see if everything works in that direction.

At any rate, 33 ohms means you are good at the tank and the problem is local in the gauges. Well done!

Edit: I have heard of cracks and bad connections developing on the flex circuit going across the back of the gauge cluster. If you or someone you know has soldering skills, you might want to look the flex over for problems. Touching up one solder joint may solve your problem permanently. There is a very similar problem like this that is well known to cause the Tach to stay at 3000 rpm all the time.
 






Well i had the day off today so i went to the auto wreckers and got the little circuit board called the Anti-Slosh module from the left side of a 92 explorer instrument cluster and guess what
My gage now works perfectly.
I also talked to a few other mechanics who have replaced fuel gages and sending units and also pumps and everything and never knew that little circuit board (Anti-Slosh module) is a cause of a faulty gage.
So I think if you are having an issue with your gage in most explorers anyways i would suggest you remove the 2 screwes from the ashtray.
then remove the front clip of your dashboard.
then remove the 4 7mm screws aroiund the instrument cluster.
If you have an automatic you will also need to remove the two screws around the PRND21 indicator with a 5.5mm screws.
There is also 7 gold colored 5.5mm screws around the front screen of the instrument cluster that will help removal of cluster as well.
Then pull the speedo cable thru the floor as much as possible and then reach behind the cluster and pinch white clip on cable and slide the speedo out of the carriage.
And then remove the two wire harnesses from the back of the cluster and then remove cluster.
If you look at the face of the cluster on the left hand side (in back) there is a small circuit board (Anti-Slosh Module) on the left hand side that can be removed on the back and this is the cause of most fuel gage problems not working .
you can order the part from dealer only and/or get it from a autowreckeer and go from there.
you may have to get two or three just to make sure one of them works.
to check to see if this has fixed your problem just reconnect the left side harness and turn key on and see if your gage registers now.if it does you are now done and you can reinstall it exactly how you removed the cluster just do it in reverse.
It took me over three hours to re and re the fuel pump and sending unit.
it took me 1 hour to goto auto wrecker remove clustrer and get the circuit board and come home and remove mine and reinstall it all back with new circuit board installed.
you decide upto at least three hours on dropping tank and removeing fuel pump and sending unit.
or an hour to go the other way.
thank you road runner but this is the biggest problem with my Explorer was this since i purchased it.
My next thing i will be doing is adding a 2 inch BL and then working on a 2 in suspension lift and then it will be nice 33s under the frame.

and then I am also looking at the all new Ford's 3.5-liter Ti-VCT V6, delivering "at least 280" horsepower and mated to a six-speed automatic transmission.
Now this would be a good project job I am thinking.
 






im wondering what brand of assembly did you buy. i also just put a new sender assembly in my truck from rock auto but mine the fuel gauge is reading about an 1/8 of a tank off. Not the end of the world but after spending 90 bucks i would rather have it in complete working order. Also before i put the sender in i bench tested it and it showed full as full and empty as empty but when i put it in the tank is when it doesnt read right.
 












im wondering what brand of assembly did you buy. i also just put a new sender assembly in my truck from rock auto but mine the fuel gauge is reading about an 1/8 of a tank off. Not the end of the world but after spending 90 bucks i would rather have it in complete working order. Also before i put the sender in i bench tested it and it showed full as full and empty as empty but when i put it in the tank is when it doesnt read right.

Almost as though the float is sitting on something in the tank. Hmm...
 






Almost as though the float is sitting on something in the tank. Hmm...

yeah or the float isnt reaching full swing up..my friend had this problem with his escort and we went in and physically moved the needle of the gauge cluster and it works fine so im thinking maybe i can just do that? i would rather not tear this thing apart again if i dont have to.
 






You could do that. It won't be exactly right because, if the sender will not go completely empty or completely full, you are just shifting the error.

But, it would be like splitting the difference, and maybe that is good enough compared to pulling the tank back down.

First, I would decide what is most important to be accurate, at empty, 1/2 full or full. Then, I would get that much gas in the tank, and reset the needle.

(If this were a case where you needed to shift the needle towards full, you could put a small resistor in-line on the yellow/white wire. In fact, a variable resistor, say, 50 ohms, would let you dial it in. Again, it's only an offset, but if you needed to shift it towards full, it would allow you to set full precisely. But, like changing the needle, it will only be an offset, and the empty point will change too)
 






Fuel gauge never reads!!!

Hey guys i bought a after market fuel gauge and was wodering if anybody knew if it was possible to wire it to where the old gauge was?
 






Thanks

This site is awesome! Going to buy a resistance meter today to see whats the problem with my fuel gauge.
 






tested

I did the yellow wire trick and I most likely had the meter set on the wrong setting but regardless I got the same resistance on both sides of connector. As soon as I find an anti-slosh module I will do a photo write up on its replacement.

Road runner, I did notice that after I checked the dash side of the harness, my dead fuel gauge was at about a quarter tank (usually on E) until I started the truck up then it returned to E. Just curious if this is a sign of what the issue is. Thanks
 












Ohm

My multi-tool has several setting to measure resistance. It read 4 on the tank end and 7 on the gauge side with around 3/4 tank of gas.
 



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My gas gauge (fuel gauge) was working fine until a mechanic pounded on top of my dash board to see if that would get my tachometer to work. I am really annoyed and of course have no recourse since he would deny the cause. I'm figuring that the impact caused a break in the board circuitry. I do a lot of repair myself and had just mentioned to my sometimes mechanic that my tach does not work. Then bang, bang, bang on my dashboard! Me and my big mouth!

I read above about the slosh-module. I'm wondering if my exact symptoms can be related to it. Maybe someone who had a bad slosh-module would respond here:

Symptoms:
Key Off: The gas gauge needle shows about 1/8 th full.
Key On: The needle goes to the extreme left, i.e. left of Empty.

I don't think that it is the fuel pump sending unit because of the cause and effect that I suspect described above.
 






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