Well the wife's car seems to be something strange lately. The fuel guage is totally inaccurate and moves all over the place, typically not anything below 1/2 a tank even though there is no fuel in the tank! So we are now guessing it by mileage to determine how much gas we roughly have in the car. We tried to probe the purple wire from the fuel tank connector to check for resistance (supposed to be 90 ohms at full tank) but we are getting nothing. Any ideas as to what it could be? Sounds like a fuel sender thus far, which ofcourse won't be a cheap repair.
J
i had the same problem, replaced the cluster, it got better but its still doin it
so if anyone knows whats wrong please let us know
but i'm takin mine to the dealership tmw (i hope) cuz i have a few probs that i want fixed b4 my warranty runs out, so if they tell me what it is i'll post it then
If you disconnect the purple wire at any point before or at the fuel sender the gauge should read FULL i.e. it shows 90 ohms + because it is open circuit.
If you now touch the gauge end of the purple wire to chassis ground the gauge should read FULL i.e. zero ohms.
This is with the ignition ON.
There is usually also a Black Earth wire, which needs a good contact with the chassis earth to ensure the earthing side of the circuit is working correctly.
If these tests do not have the gauge indicating correctly, it could be a gauge fault or the wiring to it.
Hope this helps
Alont
If you now touch the gauge end of the purple wire to chassis ground the gauge should read FULL i.e. zero ohms.
This ,of course , should read EMPTY
Senior moment
Alont
That's great info Alont! Thanks!
Now,if the guage does go to full when purple wire is disconnected, and the guage goes to empty when purple wire is grounded, the only thing left would be the actual fuel level sender I'd imagine?
Anyone have the GM part# for that peice (fuel level sender) which would be in the tank ofcourse.
J
What year is your car? (Nothing in your registry!)
There's a recall in some regions for faulty fuel gauges in 00-02 J-cars... (and N-car.. as well as some others)
<a href="http://www.lenkorules.com/"><img src="http://members.shaw.ca/jlenko/sig/redsig.jpg"></a>
Lenko, John Lenko wrote:What year is your car? (Nothing in your registry!)
There's a recall in some regions for faulty fuel gauges in 00-02 J-cars... (and N-car.. as well as some others)
Well its my wife's car so it would not match my registry anyways
Its a '99 2.2L, I just took it into the dealership today and its the fuel level sender thats malfunctioning. 2 hours labour to re&re, and $150 for the part (dealer cost).
J
I am curious as to how you can avoid the sending unit for premature failure? Maybe adding a cleaner of some kind to the gas in the tank every once in awhile?
J
As John Lenko says there was a recall and some sort of lawsuits where gas suppliers had an additive in the fuel which was alleged to cause fuel gage sender malfunctions. There were quite a few in the Toronto area I remember reading in the newspapers.
I have never heard of a product which could be added to prevent this-but maybe after I post this-we will!
Alont
Wow... my car just started doing this same thing. It's an '01 Sunfire and all of a sudden shows the gas level to be between F and 3/4. I went 300+ miles and it was still reading full. It's new thing to do now is also set off the 'Check Gages' light even with a full tank. The light will come on and the gas gauge will slowly creep to E but then shoot back up to full.
So, there is a recall for this? I bought my car used and am not sure if it was done. I brought it in for the ignition-wiring recall and they never mentioned about there being an any open recalls still needing completion. Would they even bother to check other recalls?
There is no recall for the 95-99 series I found out. Not sure about 00+ though. Usually the dealer checks all recalls whenever a vehicle is brought in though. Never the less, for my '99 it was ~$280CDN for the fuel sensor and 2 hours labour $180CDN to have it changed. Now, I did not pay those rates as I get cost on the parts and reduced rate on the labour (friend works for GM)
J
Just a little more info-I Googled "GM Cavaliers fuel gauge sender recalls"
http://www.lemonaidcars.com/update.htm
Scroll down a little on the lemonaid result and look for GM
Seems like it was the sulfur and maybe an additive that affects the senders
Alont
My 02 had the same problem a few years ago. The sending unit had gone bad. I think it cost me about $350US to have it fixed at my dealer.
