180 miles out of a tank at 19 mpg?

[Tship]

I have a 2010 Ford explorer. When the gas gauge reads empty I fill it up but can only get about 9-10 gallons in. The gauge does read full after filling. I can only get 150-180 miles out of a tank. Specs say it should be a 22.5 gallon tank. (I apologize if this is on another thread somewhere but I didn't see it). Has anyone else had this problem? When the tank is full it says 430 miles to empty. That quickly changes as the gas gauge goes down. I bought the vehicle with 60k miles on it so not sure of its history. Maybe the tank or level component was replaced? I know its not bad gas milaege because it only costs $15 to fill up an SUV lol

 

[SoCal2V]

Likely a bad sending unit.

Haven't done one on mine but probably a pretty straightforward procedure, although you would want to go ahead and drive the tank as reasonably close to empty as possible (yes, it does hold 21 gallons) to make dropping it easier.

The part (MOTORCRAFT PS257 {#7L2Z9A299A}) runs about $61 on RockAuto.com. If you're paying to have this done I would expect in the neighborhood of 2-3 hours labor charges at whatever the going rate, plus whatever they charge you for parts.

 

[ronwc]

tank

Try running a bottle of techron in your gas to clean sending unit.