86gn fuel gauge is off by a 1/4 of a tank, any help..please
chad
My fuel gauge in my 87GN has a mind of its own and moves to different levels as I drive. Does anybody know where I should start looking for the problem. Is it a problem at the sending unit in the tank or is it a problem in the dash cluster? Thanks for any help,Tom.
The fuel tank is not baffled. It's normal for the gauge to move on turns, stops and acceleration. Should hold steady when car is crusing or stoped.
My gauge will move and stay at different points even when crusing or stopped. I actually ran it out of fuel one time. I think the whole problem is in the float/sender area in the fuel tank. When I put the new fuel pump in last fall, everything looked okay at that time. Thanks for your help,Tom
The fuel guage in my 87 GN was very "sticky". I had to tap on the dash in front of the guage to get it to read half way right. I took the guage out of the dash and used a toothpick to apply a few drops of WD40 down the shaft into the guage and rotated the shaft back and forth. The guage is now free moving and reads accurately except that when the tank is full the needle is past the full mark. The good part is when it reads empty, it really is empty.
Does anyone know where to buy a fuel pump sender unit for an '85 w/digital dash? Also open to suggestions of what else may work.
For the longest time my gas gauge (digital) was off by three galons. 3 gal was empty. Now 5 gal is empty. There has got to be some sort of adjustment that can be made.
It's almost always the sender going bad when the fuel gage is inaccurate. The sender is a flimsy design using a wirewound resistor and a copper wiper that moves with the float arm. When this resistor wears out, the coils of wire in the winding separate, touch one another, and lead to an inaccurate reading. The gage, whether digital or analog, works virtually identically. The digital dash used a 120 ohm (when full) sender, while the analog dash used a more conventional 90 ohm sender. Either way, they'll both be accurate when the tank is almost empty.
-John Spina
http://www.casperselectronics.com
Click on the Calendar in the upper left hand corner of the website.
Is this sender a common part or where can I go to get one and the big question is how hard is it to replace. I wouldn't mind the tank being off but it is off at the empty end.
Rob,
I don't think that the sender for the digital dash is available any more, but I could be wrong on that. What does your gas gauge read when you just turn the key to on? Is it accurate then? Mine reads about 4 gal high on the low end, but if the engine is shut off the gauge will be very close to accurate "e" or flashing "e". I think it has something to do with the grounding of the sensor although I haven't tested this yet. There is more info on this in the archives. HTH
Mike Gloff
mgloff@hotmail.com