I can fill her up, and top her off. The gauge will stay above the full mark for like 75 miles or so. Then it drops down to below half a tank. The next day, it will have three quarters of a tank for about ten minutes, then will shoot down to an eighth of a tank and stay there until the trip odometer had about 240 miles on it. Then it's empty and will hold about thirteen gallons. It's actally somewhat rewarding to know my car well enough to know by instinct when to re-fuel, but it can still be annoying.

This is my first thirdgen and I got it with high miles. I wonder if any of you veterans noticed your gauge doing the same thing over the years.

Since this is a legitimate post, I hope I can also get away with saying that GM are a bunch of morons. I weep not only for the F-body, but all the casualties of corporate malfeasance. Monte, Impala, Beretta, Olds. What's next? Saturn, I hope.

 

well here's what my guage does. for the most part, if the car is off, or i'm coasting, it stays pretty accurate. but when i go full throttle, the needle goes up, when i get on the brakes hard, the needle goes down. so, according to my guage, if i did like a 0-60-0 test, i would go from a half tank of gas, to a full tank, then an empty tank in 15-20 seconds, however long it takes my slow *** car to do that.

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My 84 camaro, while not quite as dramatic, does the same thing. It has just gotten to be 'normal'

I've never had that problem though in my 'bird.

Both however (my camaro is alot worse), read whatever they want under throttle (more gas), braking(less gas) or cornering(depends on which direction the turn is). I blame ****-poor, basically a triangle , gas tank design. If I'm not mistaken, GM tried to 'solve' this problem in later years by adding baffles inside the tank to help control fuel slosh (and to keep gauge from jumping around so much). I'll have to agree about GM as well...

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[This message has been edited by deadbird (edited October 15, 2001).]

 

Mine is like Diabolical's. I just got into the habit of checking the gas before I start the car, cause thats when its accurate.

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Yes the gas gauges in my 83 and 84 are crazy. All of my friends w/ F-bods also have crazy gauges. Similar to what you described. The needle will indicate F for 75 miles and then it indicates about 1/2 a tank for another 100, Eventually it drives towards E.

Its not very accurate.

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after i fill mine up it takes like ten minutes to indicate full on the gauge. I think it is funny because everyone is like what the f*ck. you just filled up.

 

same here
i can't seem to put a certain schedule to mine... it just says what it wants when it wants... so, i keep gas in it... just whenever i'm out, put five in or so... havn't ran out yet (knock on wood)
*one of the small drawbacks to the greatest cars on earth*
haha

 

no drawback, just swap out, even in the hardest G's mines good...
91. and no you cant have it....

lol. anyways... no, the only crazy gauge is my Batt power.. my oil goes up sometimes... (weird) and the Temp IS DEAD!! and i dont know why....

other than that, *** bless Gm, specially since it AINT A FORD.....

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My 84 Z28 did the same thing. You would be driving along and it would drop all of a sudden and stay lower and then the next time I start the car it would be up more....it made no sense. I learned to guess good. I fill it from half every 2 days because I use a lot of fuel. About $150 bucks every week. I am happy to be putting gas in my civic now. I can't wait to get my baby back out in the spring though!

 

The reason the fuel gage is irratic is most likely because you have a bad sender.

If you are experinecing fluctuation when you accelerate then chances are it is because of the location of the sender in the tank. If I remember right, the sender is close to the rear of the tank, so when you hit the gas it would go up. When you hit the brakes it would go down.

I had a car that was the other way around. Hit the gas, and it looked like it was going down as fast as my speed was going up. Stop at a light and it would bob up and down...

Had another car that it would read full till about a 1/4 of a tank and it would suddenly drop without warning. Conversly, when I would fill up the tank it would stay about 1/2 tank for a few hours until it decided to go to the top. It happened to be a sticky float.

John

 

My gauge is oposite of most of yours. When I accleerate it goes down rapidly and goes chaotic when I slow down. I like to look at it as an excuse to keep going fast, but in reality I just got used to good old instinct to tell me when to fill up my tank.

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my fuel gauge moves faster than my speedo, but that's because of all the gas it sucks to power the bad boy.
lol

 

My car does the same thing (91RS). It will stay at full for about 75-100 miles, then all of a sudden go down to about 2/3 of a tank. I guess it's because our babies are getting to be teenagers now, which is when cars start to show their age, especially when they have a lot of mileage. It will also fluctuate when it gets down to about 1/3 of a tank.

 

has anyone changed to an aftermarket sender and fuel gauge?