fuel gauge has a mind of its own?
 

So today I wasn't going to drive the FD cause A) it is going to be insanely hot and B) im a bit superstitious when it comes to holidays. And the irony of a day like today where there's "fireworks", last thing I wanted was an engine fire or a blown engine lol.

But since the FD is a weekend car, I can't pass up the chance. So I decided to take it out, a bit earlier than usual to beat the midday heat.

Anyway all is well like every weekend til about an hour into the drive, 40 miles from home, and my usual u-turn road is coming.

I take a sharp 90 degree turn then continue to a round a bout road to beat the green light but I missed it. At the light idling, I looked at my fuel gauge and its MOVING. Im literally shitting bricks.

I originally started with a tick above 1/4 tank and the gauge literally went from 1/4 to the E line in 25-30 seconds, while im at the light.

At this time im literally praying to god don't let this be a fuel leak, cause for one I don't want an engine fire and second im 40miles from home.

But there was absolute zero smell of fuel and I kept inching up the car to see if there was any fluid on the floor and nothing. This was the longest red light I have ever experienced lol.

Up ahead about 1/8 mile I noticed a burger king and was gonna pull in there to check out the car. Well light FINALLY turned green and off I went. Long left sweep and I kept gawking at the fuel gauge.

Now the fuel line is going UP? WTF? ?? And instead of going into that burger king lot I just proceeded and noticed was getting back to normal the more I drove. After about 1/2 mile it went back to 1/4 full and stayed there.

Now im thinking maybe a sender problem? Maybe the float?

Would that hard right hander prior to the light make the float/sender whacky? Then fixed itself after the left hand turn?

On the drive home I continued to monitor the gauge. It was back to normal. 1/4 full.

When I got home I left the car idling and gauge didn't move. I popped the hood and no fuel smell or any leak on the floor.

What gives? Lol

When you took that right hander, all the fuel could have moved away from the floater. Our senders are pretty slow reacting so that could be the reason why it took so long for it to come back.

My fuel guage is a bit wierd too, but not quite as strange as yours behaved today. After I fill up at the station, it takes about 5 mins for my needle to move past 1/2, and then will stay just a notch above 3/4. It will rarely go all the way up to F. Once I filled the tank until I overfilled it just to make sure it was full, and it still didn't go all the way up to F. I've even pulled the pump/assembly out of the tank and cleaned it and it didn't make a difference.

Yeah my gauge moves slow too when I add gas. Not that slow though but today was the first time I had this strange problem.


Like why would it continue to move DOWN when im already stopped? Then coincidentally rise to normal when I proceeded to start driving again?

I was gonna take the pump out and check but since you said it did nothing for you, maybe it will do nothing for me.

Should I just ignore this and take it as one of those weird things fd's do? and that its just a one time rare thing or should I go ahead and do some searching as potential problems for the future?

If you are willing to take the pump assembly out, make sure the floater isn't punctured or some thing.

maybe the welds on the baffles inside the tank is starting to break apart. The hard 90 was enough to slosh the fuel and cause your float to get stuck on the baffle. After driving it and getting it back home, the float broke free from the battle and starting working like normal again.

Will keeping my tank full prevent the float getting caught on the baffles? (Baffles are on bottom of tank right?)

If so im gonna fill up asap lol

Assuming it is the baffles. If the baffles are coming apart, it will only get worst as fuel sloshes around. My baffles fell apart on me in late 90's that was over 10 years ago, I'm surprise yours held up so long. Depending on your driving style, you may or may not have to fix it. If you don't fix it, it will get worst and then completely break apart inside the tank, which will require either a new tank or you might have to drop the tank and get it flushed and welded. I ended up removing my baffles completely because it ended up damaging my float, but because I'm running without baffles, I have to keep the tank fairly full to avoid fuel starvation on hard corners.

Yes, the baffles are on the bottom of the tank but if the welds are broken it might move around and hang up your float regardless of how much fuel is in the tank. Your best bet is to first check the harness wiring, (not sure if you are stock or did the fuel pump rewire) but check the wiring for the float switch to make sure they are not falling apart. Since it happened right after a hard corner, it more likely to be the baffles, just remove the pump assembly and take a quick look to see if the baffles are loose and moving around inside the tank. You might have to stick your hands inside so, do so when the tank is not completely full.

Lol my fuel gauge went crazy a couple of weeks ago, but it was worse she stayed crazy. Now when i fill the tank the full mark is 3/4 :S

Damn, well little problems like this with the FD are the inevitable. I can only be thankful its not anything major lol

I will borrow my friends gen-eye (camera snake for the plumbers) instead of taking everything apart and shoving my hand down there.

But in your opinion, is the car safe to drive, lets say the baffles are loose or actually broken?

If anything, it will only hang up the float but wont affect pump function correct? I still wanna drive my car on the weekends.

I HATE downtime lol

Hahahahahah.