Got stung by a faulty fuel level sending unit!!

[mikesride]

The lady friend and I decide after a day of running around that we would stop and pick up a coffee and enjoy the sunshine for a bit. We just run to the local McD's as we both like the coffee and this one has a nice patio overlooking a little park. The car makes a little "wine" while sitting at a red light and dies!!!! Starts up right again and gets us to the coffee spot....as soon as we get home I say I will check into it.
We enjoy our coffee and head home...but "Little Red" will have nothing to do with it!!! Fires, sputters and dies. We enjoy a nice walk home.
The "father in law" helps me tow her home later that afternoon and we dig into her...she has half a tank of fuel. Check for spark, all good, no air intake obstruction so the culprit must be fuel!!!! No fuel pressure at the accumulator...we start working our way forward....to the relays...the ignition switch.....the fuel pump....all good. Commence head scratching....which by this time contains an unruly mostly fuel soaked mop of hair. (there IS fuel in the system). Last resort, we empty a can of gas into her.....man that tank sure sounds empty.....and BOOM!!! Off she goes like the silky little sex kitten that she normally is!!!! There was not enough fuel in the tank to feed the pick up tube I guess and the sending unit was hung up at half mast! (she sits in the garage a lot....easy to lose track of the last time she was filled up).
Funny thing is, I was just gonna pop off the sending unit as the very first point, just cause its so easy to get to really, and have a look inside the tank for any possible debris or other problems. But the lovely ladies father talked me out of it using the wisdom of "you don't have a new gasket here for under that sending unit and that one could be 30+ years old"....sounded like words of wisdom at the time!!!!
Anyway.....smarter guys would have started by adding fuel to the tank first off...I get it....I get it...... We had a great evening out in the garage with a couple cold beers and more than the odd laugh...many more laughs after we "fixed the problem" LOL, followed by a nice late night drive for another coffee!!!!!
You guys all know the moral of the story.....and yes....Mikey has learned, oh boy how he has learned!!!!!!!

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by mikesride

... You guys all know the moral of the story.....and yes....Mikey has learned, oh boy how he has learned!!!!!!!

Yep, I always look for the most obvious "cause" first...usually find it in my bathroom mirror

[Joe Bob]

I gave up on my gas gauge years ago. I use the odometer. Then the odometer gear broke. Fixed the odo the next day. Still ignore the gas gauge.....and the oil level gauge.

[RANDY P]

A bottle of techroline goes a long way- dump that in the tank and drive till a quarter or so fixes the issue- at least it did on every BMW and Benz I've ever owned.

[fastfredracing]

You would be surprised at the number of times I dropped a tank to replace the fuel pump , only to find that it was empty . Now, if the gauge is showing less than 1/8, and I can hear the pump run, I always add a gallon first and see if it fires.
I also dropped a tank once, for a fuel pump, only to find the entire tank frozen solid with ice. He worked at a salvage yard, and had been collecting gas from old cars . I guess some people fill the tanks of scrap cars with water to make them weigh more. oops..

[beepbeep]

This reminds me about time when my SAAB wouldn't start. After some head scratching, I diagnosed it bad fuel pump (it wasn't humming). So I bought new pump and after lot's of swearing I decided to cut up the chassis from the inside to get to the pump/sender (otherwise I would need to drop the tank). Really messy job that took whole evening.

Changed the pump and .... nothing!

Then I remembered something PO told me about theft protection system...you needed to unlock the car with key fob. So I did and vroom!

Do I need to tell you that old pump was fully functional?

[GH85Carrera]

I am the only person that usually drives my cars. I always rest the odometer at every refueling. My El Camino has worn out worn out one fuel gauge. I had to replace the gauge, not the sender.

The 911 had a stuck sender once. I had driven 300 miles and still had 1/2 a tank. That did not seem quite right. Pulling the sender on a 911 is about the easiest project there is. Sure enough the float was stuck. I freed it up and it has been fine for more years than I remember.

I have been driving since 1970. I have never run out of gas. My first car was a 1960 VW bug with no gas gauge. It was an option that year and the my car did not have that option. I just drove until I ran out of gas and put it on reserve. That was a gallon and that meant 32 miles more. I just had to be SURE I put it back on normal and not leave it in reserve mode. I have never ever run out of gas and been stranded since I started to drive. I have been real close. I have put in more gas than the manual says would fit.

[id10t]

My 356 has been spotty on the fuel gauge since new - just the nature of the beast.

Of course, it has the reserve tank, if you remember to turn it back to "normal" after using it.

Full tank - 250 miles or so, then start looking for gas, 'cause you ain't going 325 miles....

[1990C4S]

My friends daughter filled her Kia with diesel. I admit I never solved it...but the dealer did.

[id10t]

Originally Posted by 1990C4S

My friends daughter filled her Kia with diesel. I admit I never solved it...but the dealer did.

Around here the Diesel pump nozzles are larger in diameter than the gas ones which barely fit in the filler hole. How did she manage that? I guess i could see it in Cali where they have those vapo-recovery systems that don't let you actually insert the nozzle....

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by 1990C4S

My friends daughter filled her Kia with diesel. I admit I never solved it...but the dealer did.

How is that physically possible? The nozzle is green, and way bigger than the filler neck.

I could make a rude joke about fitting a large objects into a small hole but I would never do that.

[1990C4S]

Originally Posted by id10t

Around here the Diesel pump nozzles are larger in diameter than the gas ones which barely fit in the filler hole. How did she manage that? I guess i could see it in Cali where they have those vapo-recovery systems that don't let you actually insert the nozzle....

Where I live the we have huge diesel fillers for the big rigs, and smaller ones for the cars.

It makes sense for the gas to be bigger. You do not want gas in a diesel, that will destroy the engine. Diesel in a gas car doesn't ruin the engine, it just doesn't run.

[1990C4S]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

How is that physically possible? The nozzle is green, and way bigger than the filler neck.

I could make a rude joke about fitting a large objects into a small hole but I would never do that.

It's green, but it fit. There was some embarrassment.

[SiberianDVM]

I have been working for the last 6 months on turning a 1989 Supra into a ChumpCar road racer. I only paid $1100 for the car, so you can imagine the shape it was in when I started

Of the gauges, the speedometer, the water temp, the oil pressure, and the fuel level didn't work. Fixed the mechanical speedometer with a new lower cable, the water temp with a new wire to the sending unit and the oil pressure with a new sending unit. This was after removing the aftermarket radio, aftermarket alarm, and about 50 lights that had been used to "decorate" the interior.

Still couldn't get the gas gauge to work. Took out the gauge and tested it: fine. Pulled the sending unit and it was flakey. Spent $150 on new sending unit and it still didn't work. Said screw it and went on to something else.

2 months later I am working under the dash and found a ground wire that wasn't connected. Yep, that fixed it.