Fuel gauge problem....

[Jonboywv12]

okay gotta a quick question and its a little problem i have....my fuel gauge is not working right now...i was about a quarter till complete empty all of a sudden the truck started like sounding like it was starving for fuel so i tunned it down and pulled into a gas station and starting putting full in it and once i did that it started to idle fine and drive right....could something be stuck to give a false reading? this happened one other time and the truck actually died on me and was bone dry and it did it at about the same place this happened this afternoon...any help would be great! thanks guys

[Jonboywv12]

come on guys i would love to get some ideas of what it could be...i hate only being able to drive till half a tank and then going to fill back up again.

[Effreem]

I've heard (and confirm with my truck) that our fuel gauges can get wonky, if the gauge reads less than 3/8s of a tank...its in the "not completely correct" area.

My truck has a 28 (I think) gallon tank and at 1/4 a tank I have put in anywhere from 15 to 27 gallons to fill it. I fill up at 1/2 a tank now, which really sucks with only a 28-ish gallon tank.

[Jonboywv12]

yeah that is my thing i am so afraid to drive it now and let it sink below half tank, because i really do not know where the level is. isnt there a float in the tank? that may have gotten stuck...

[Effreem]

I dont really know what you can do about it. Maybe play with the mechanism in the tank.

I think most people just deal with it. After a while you will learn what kind of MPG you can expect with what your doing and watch your odometer as needed.

[Jonboywv12]

yeah i hear ya...thats what i have been doing since it happened the first time like 6 months ago...i just let it slip my mind and it got low, and i quickly got reminded.

[Chakir]

Not sure if this helps at all, but my car had the same problem. It was a corroding electrical connection causing it to read high. The shop wanted a fistfull of dollars to drop the tank and fix it, but I was able to get it going again with a few tanks of gas with fuel injector cleaner in it.

No idea if something like that would work in diesel fuel, but it may be worth looking into.

[Jonboywv12]

alright thanks...ill look around.

[smkn22s]

my truck does the exact same thing. the first time this happend to me, i was on my way to work and it starts ideling rough then dies. i got a tow to the house bc at the time i "knew" i had fuel but i was wrong. the gauge lies! a friend of mine that is a diesel mechanic at ford says there is a tip or nozzle..something like that...any how, it has a screen and falls off and thererfore only sucks air at around 1/4 tank. i just wait till my odometer hits 400 miles then filler up!

[smkn22s]

oh yea.. i have been dealing with this issue since 2005. im just a cheap a$$ and dont want to spend $400 or $500 for new fuel pump to fix the problem. id rather just fill it up when i know it needs it