Gas gauge working but not reading????

[Sphinx]

I did a search in the forums but nothing useful turned up. The gauge worked fine for 80+ thousand miles till the other day, all gauges worked when I shut the truck off for the night with about 3/4 tank full, I go out the next morning and start the truck and it reads below empty. I figured wtf some one sucked the gas out....that was not the case. I drove the the station and put gas in it, she still had the 3/4 tank full of gas....wtf????


When the key is off, my gauge reads 1/8 tank, which is normal. But when I turn the key on it moves down below the empty red line. Worked before it was turned off, then next day go to turn it on no worky!!!!! Any ideas?

 

[jbking]

Did you ever find out what caused this? I had the same thing happen and then one day it started working again and haven't had the problem come back in over a year.

 

[Sphinx]

No i haven't. I don't want to tear the dash apart and drop the tank. I crawled under the truck and whacked the gas tank a few times hoping it was just a stuck float. Still doesn't work. Been about a week now. Im starting to wonder if some one tried to steal gas and damaged the float with the hose.

 

[Sphinx]

bump

 

[Sphinx]

bump

 

[shamaal]

Odd, I'm surprised nobody replied by now.

Usually the float on the sensor in the gas tank develops a hole and becomes water ... uh .... fuel logged. This may make it appear to be empty or occasionally stuck somewhere. Less common is corrosion in the wires up to about 12 inches before the connector; this usually happens on the pump wires, but can happen on the sender side as well (same connector). I suppose the gauge can go bad, I don't recall seeing one though.

The solution is to drop the tank and replace the pump assy, the sender or just the float depending on your financial situation or urge to muck with things. While the tank is down and the pump removed you can carefully exercise the sender and confirm the gauge works.

Keep asking questions, this is a friendly forum.

 

[Iron-Mike]

the sending unit and the float are one assembly when bought from the "stealership". Its about $55 bucks and is a Motorcraft part. I recently bought one for my 2000 Limited explorer so I'm basing this on info I received about a month or two ago

 

[Gambit606]

I had the same problem when the car is off it registers an eighth of a tank and when running shows empty. My problem was that the float had a hole in it, filled with fuel and sunk. you can get a new float at a dealer for around five bucks.