Fuel Gauge acting weird

[Fred Cook]

I have a weird problem with my fuel gauge. Each time I fire up the coach the fuel gauge needle goes all the way to the right, way past the full mark. It stays there for about an hour and then starts bouncing around. Usually after about 90 minutes it settles down to, what I believe, is the correct fuel level reading.

Also... if I know I should get some fuel and the needle is still stuck all the way to the right.... after filling up the tank the needle will immediately adjust to the Full reading on the gauge and starts to read properly as the fuel is being used up. But... once the motor is shut down even for a few seconds, and then started up again it reverts to the problem I described above... needle all the way to the right.

I told you this is weird. Any thoughts on what could be wrong?

[Fred Brooks]

  Hi Fred,
 Not real sure, but I believe your fuel sending unit is the 90 ohm style with a float on it. It measures resistance according to the float location and sends that directly to the dash gauge. My guess is because of your description of the situation it would be a loose connection at the sender or the back of the fuel gauge. Another frequent occurrence is the top of your fuel tank is a favorite location for pack rats to make a nest. Because Soy bean oil is used in the manufacturing process of the insulation that goes on automotive wiring, these critters think it is food. I am not sure of the location of the sender on your fuel tank. Hope this helps, Fred

[Fred Cook]

Thanks Fred.  I will have a look and troubleshoot what you described above.   I’m hoping the problem is not on top of the fuel tank. A few months ago a repair shop dropped my fuel tank to repair the hose going to the generator as it was leaking extremely bad. Turns out some rodents had chewed through the hose but the fuel gauge was working at that time. So I’m wondering if somehow they damaged the wiring on top of the tank or maybe didn’t notice the wiring was damaged when fixing the hose.  Either way the tank would probably need to be dropped again to fix it and I would hate to go through that again.