Bad gas guage

[nickdalzell]

My new car's gas gauge is miscalibrated. when my tank has 1 gallon left i should need more than $20 to fill it up. but lately when it dips below E and dings 'low fuel' in the information center, i put like $15 in it (which equates to like 7 gallons) and cuts off. my car is full. My gas gauge is reading far lower than it should. So now i need a mechanic and tons of $$$ to recalibrate the blasted thing.

I usually put $20 in it each week, since i drive 300 miles a week. So the gauge is broke or i own the only Saturn ION in existence that gets 50MPG.

 

[Dngrsone]

Don't bother, Nick: the gas gauge hasn't been linear in years; the makers would rather err on the side of caution when it comes to telling you when to fill up.

 

[Mikestony]

My new car's gas gauge is miscalibrated. when my tank has 1 gallon left i should need more than $20 to fill it up. but lately when it dips below E and dings 'low fuel' in the information center, i put like $15 in it (which equates to like 7 gallons) and cuts off. my car is full. My gas gauge is reading far lower than it should. So now i need a mechanic and tons of $$$ to recalibrate the blasted thing.

It may not be the gauge. It could be something with the venting in the tank? (cutting off the fill process prematurely )

 

[EarlyMon]

http://www.amazon.com/Sea-Foam-SF-16-24PK-Motor-Treatment/dp/B00761KHOA

Now can we take this all to the automotive forum?

Please?

 

[bjacks12]

At least it doesn't err the other way like the one in my Lexus did. That thing sucked.

I learned long ago to use my odometer as the best indicator of when to fill up.

But if you can get it recalibrated and don't mind spending the money, a working gauge is nice.

GM in particular has not been great with fuel gauges.

 

[bjacks12]

Just my two cents about Gas Station rants...

People who get pi$$ off at people who drive cars that happen to have a gas tank portal on the Passenger Side of the car instead of the Driver Side...

Seriously, my previous car, a Pontiac G5, had its gas tank portal on the Passenger Side, so when I would get to a gas station, I would go towards the correct Left Lanes, and invariably, some jerk with a gas tank port on the Drivers Side would honk and curse at me for going the wrong way in the gas station lane. Typically, I'd point to the gas tank portal on the Passenger Side of my car. Usually that shut them up. There were a few times, however, that someone would threaten to beat me up or something. One time, a guy even told me that I should get rid of the car, or get the gas tank moved.

My Lexus had the filler on the wrong side as well. Why do they do this? What was the intention of that design? Don't fix what works fine. Should be an SAE standard to have the filler on the driver side.

 

[Unforgiven]

I miss the old cars that had the fill tube under the rear license plate. No thinking when pulling into the filling station.

PS, I moved your post over here bjacks.

 

[lunatic59]

It may not be the gauge. It could be something with the venting in the tank? (cutting off the fill process prematurely )

I agree with Mike. If the pump cuts off and your tank isn't full, you're getting blowback at the filler neck. It's probably a faulty evaporative emissions canister (the gizmo that allows the tank to vent without releasing gas fumes in to the atmosphere.)

Modern gauges aren't that accurate. My car always warns me that I have 0 (zero) miles to go but when I fill it up, the 15.5 gal tank only takes 13.5 gallons.

Check your mileage the old fashioned way ... fill it up, write down the mileage and then drive to empty. Fill it up again and do the math. (miles driven/gallons pumped.)

 

[nickdalzell]

My tank was full. as evidenced by gas pouring back out when i tried to add more anyway.

Going by the odometer is too variable. some times i can go 450 miles, other times 250 before needing to fill up. i know it's hard on fuel pumps to get the tank too dry so i always try to fill up somewhere between 1/3 and empty. but seeing as the gauge is faulty i must now take 'E' as 1/4 tank. it's 1/4 tank off!

can a mechanic recalibrate the gauges at all on these modern cars? on my Pontiac, i knew exactly how far down the gauge i could go before i needed a $20 fillup. today, though, it's never as consistent.

The Saturn ION only has a 12 gallon tank. but if i drive backroads all the time i can somehow manage 50MPG while it's like mid 20's on the city streets or mixed. it's all over the map. but apparently my gauge and message center think low fuel is when i have far more than 4 gallons left. that's not right at all.

My Chrysler Fifth Avenue was the opposite. if the low fuel LED ever lit on the fuel gauge, you can bet that exactly 10 miles after it did, car would just die. they must have designed those for Sunday church-goers. those who would actually be within 10 miles of a station. i lived in the middle of nowhere!

 

[Mikestony]

Perhaps you need a new fuel pump (of which the fuel level sensor is incorporated).
Could be corrosion in the connector at the fuel pump (in the tank).

Take it to a mechanic

 

[codesplice]

Take it to a mechanic

This ^^

You know how hard it is to help someone on a forum when they post "my phone bootloops" or similar? It can be really tricky to figure out exactly what's up (or what system file they won't own up to deleting/modifying). It's even harder to diagnose a car over the Internet.

Get a qualified mechanic to give it a looksie and see what they can, well, see.

 

[nickdalzell]

I was just curious if the system could be recalibrated. I'm not too current on brand new cars. I'm just hoping to avoid someone charging me an arm and a leg to drop the tank and replace the pump/sending unit combo when the car is modern enough for someone to plug in a box and reprogram the algorithm used by the fuel gauge and save me a few hundred dollars.