Mike96z

My gas guage goes up and down and up and down and stays as far as full as it can go until I get about a 1/4 tank left and even then it says like 1/2 full, the guage is screwed, what does this mean and how to fix it?

arctic white 94

My car and I believe all of the camaros do that.There is nothing wrong with your guage.

Gr95camaro

mine doesnt do that? i have a 95 3.4 with 125k and my gas gage works perfect i had that probelm on the lumina and the sending unit and gas pump were in the same unit and when i replace the gas pump it fixed the problem. so i would say its a bad sending unit

Mike96z

I'm thinking it's the floater in the gas tank. My guage is broken, stays all the way past full until I'm almost empty.

NOS2006

I've had that start happening lately.. I thought I was going nuts. Thanks for assuring me that I'm still sane.

Chevamaro

I'm not sure what would cause the erratic readings, but it's the shape of the gas tank that causes the needle to move quickly towards empty as you run low on gas.

ImportKILLER

Its the shape of the gas tank.

Imagine the tank as shapped as the letter " V ".

When full, the level of the gasoline doesn't move much. When the fuel level does go down, due to the shape, the needle moves much quicker.

For my car, when I fill up the gauge goes beyond the full mark and doesn't get to the actual full mark until about 100 miles. I'll usually get to 250-270 when it gets to the 1/2 tank mark and then around 300-320 at the 1/4 mark.

Once at the 1/4 mark, I know I need to get some gas quick! I've had my car for almost 100,000 miles and it has always been like that.

kallcium

I have had an 85 firebird, 89 firebird, 94 chevy 1/2 truck and now a 96 camaro. All these cars did that. When you fill it up the needle goes about the equilivent of a 1/4 tank past full. When your at full it means 3/4 and 1/2 it really means 1/4 and empty means "I hope your next to a gas station" Once you get to between the full and 3/4 mark the needle starts to move back and forth as you accelerate and hit the brakes... the less fuel in the tank the more it does this. That is because the float in the tank goes up and down as your fuel sloshes around. Some car companies got around that by making the sending unit delay the reading to the guage some how. I drove my friends Honda and when I filled it from empty to full it took like 5 mins for the guage to start to go up... so it looked like it was empty just after you fill it up. Maybe GM will one day do this, I dont know. Anyways as long as the needle doesn't move more that 1/4 tank its ok. On my camaro, I ran out of gas once (my stupid mistake) and pushed it into a gas station. I watched the guage and pump meter as I was filling it up, so I found out that the 1/4 mark = 3 gallons, 1/2 = 5.5 gallons, 3/4 = 9 gallons, full = 12 gallons and past full all the way = 15.5 gallons. So since I know this and the gas milage of my car I know how far I can go with any reading of the gas guage. It should be similar to yours.

6SpdLT1Z

I use my trip odometer as my gas gauge... but mine worked pretty well.

Gr95camaro

i dont know i see a lot of people have that problem but like i said my gas gage works perfect the only car i had a problem with was my chevy lumina and the pump sending unit and flaper as one of you put it were all one peice and when the fuel pump went bad it fixed it but it would get stuck on full then drop down to 1/4 and stay there never go below 1/4 or go back and fother between 1/4 and full very eracticly but when i replace the unit it, it fiexed it and the fuel gage worked perfectly i have never had the gast tank out of my camaro so i have no idea of the shape ill have to take your guys word on it i do notice i get beter gas milage out of the first half a take so it seems but i think thats cuase when i fill the take it goes above what my it can read and fills up the filler neck but its not eratic nor is it that great of a diffrence just slight i usually get about 320 miles out of a tank and about 175 miles out the first half. that doesnt mean that your having the same problem just something to look for

Mike96z

People please understand I have a 96 camaro and it does what your talking about going up and down, but this guage is TOTALLY DIFFERENT and doesn't work at all, goes all the way like 1/2 an inch past full and stays there for about 300 miles then comes down about 20 miles left.

kallcium

Change the sending unit. I am pretty sure thats what it is. Although you have to remove the rear axle and drop the tank for that you might want to just live with it and use the trip odometer for your gas guage. You could replace the gas guage because it is easy to replace but its probally not that and could be expensive since it is part of the instrument panel and I believe has to be replaced as a whole. You could check to see if any of the wires are grounding out.... the run under the dash along the driver side under the carpet through the body just between the two rear seats and out to the fuel tank. These are pretty much the only 3 things in the system. In my opinion I would say it is most likely the sending unit in the tank (part of the fuel pump) causing this by what your decribing.

GALIATHON

I would say just use your trip om.. thats what i do.. but you might want 2 have a gas can full, just so you know just how many miles you can go before you need to get fuel..

Mike96z

That's what I'm doing.

Jp Ogilvie

I have the same problem the stuff i know about cars is dangerous. My Clutch Plate gave **** so I had to get a new Clutch kit. Car just came back from the mechanic. Now he sais just before he drove off my" petrol pipe broke" less petrol for me. Previously my petrol gauge worked 100% after the accident my petrol gauge goes rapidly up when i eccelerate and rapidly down when i brake, just want to know am i being played. Thanks