Fuel Reading Error: Tank Never Shows Its Full
 

Hi Everyone,

Has anyone experienced this before.... where you fill up your tank and the last led light does not light up? Sometimes its the last two that never light up, but that sometimes changes to just 1 after driving around for a bit.

I have taken the car to the dealership several times now, they have tried replacing the cluster twice now and that didnt help - and they have now ordered some more parts which I need to bring my car back, but if there is anything out there someone has experienced that I can perhaps guide them to a solution that would be helpful. They are not sure what is causing it....

Ive tried pumping at different gas stations, and either put in Gold or Ultra gas only in my car. (91 or 94 octane).

Fuel level float sensors inside the tank. It's rather common. The system isn't designed very well and IMHO not really worth chasing because it's so likely to just keep happening. Replacing the fuel pump sending unit should temporarily solve it.

Fill the tank and use a volt meter to check the ohms across the level sensor circuits to confirm that they are not reading full. Its ridiculous that your dealer techs would keep throwing expensive clusters at your car when 10 minutes of entry level diagnostics would isolate the problem.

Hey Charles,

Any idea what resistance (ohms) it should show when the tank is full and when its empty?

I had this problem with my 2010. It drove me nuts. I had both fuel level senders replaced under warranty and the problem went away.

Replacing the senders as onzedge said may work. On my '10 Z it was intermittent and unpredictable.

Oh man that sucks :eek: I've gotten 110 miles on that first dot alone! :rolleyes:

If its driving you guys that crazy just put a very slight bend to allow the float to go up further. Gotta find the happy medium because if you go to far you'll run out with a few dots showing. lol

been written about in the past.

basically i keep the tank full when i know i wont be using the car for weeks or months at a time to keep the sensors lubed.

The last dot never light up since new. I am not too concern about the last dot as long as the lower dots are accurate so that I wouldn't run out of gas.

I wouldn't want the dealers to keep ripping apart the cluster just for that. They might break other things in the process and probably develop squeaking noise down the road.

I experience the same problem when I fill up, all but one light lights up, but the guage seems to work correctly on the remaining lights so I haven't messed with it.

I'm telling you guys. That first light is the one that gives you the best gas mileage :icon17:

I had the same problem but the other way around. I went from 5 dots to no dots with the flashing in a matter of 10 miles driving down the road at the same speed. Drove me nuts when I put 15 gallons in it to fill it back up. 4 gallons still in the tank and it's flashing?? Took it in to my dealership and they replaced the fuel sensors and no more flashy flashy until it really runs low on fuel. Im back to 17 or 18 gallons at fuel stops now. Not sure if this helps but go with Phunks advice and go that route.

Had that issue about a year in after I bought the car. Didn't bother me so I never got it fixed