hello all,
I have a 1989 camaro RS v8 TBI 4 speed auto tranny...
anywho... the fuel gauge is stuck on full and will never move.

I took the face off and pushed the gauge all the way down to "E", then when I started the car it went all the way back up. I figured I had a full tank, but I have been driving this car for nearly a week without putting any gas in it. I KNOW ITS NOT FULL.

whats the problem? thanx n advanced.

The float affixed to your fuel pump in your gas tank is stuck.

It tells the dash you ALWAYS have a full tank.


You have to drop the tank, PB Blast/WD40 the float, get it to drop down.

And your golden.


Or you could just live with it.

It's possible that the sender is bad,and is reading 90 ohms all the time,which it does with a full tank.Also check for continuity between the sender and the gauge,I think if you have lost continuity,it will also read at 90 ohms.Should be a tan wire.Good luck.

Before you go dropping tanks and performing all kinds of crazy unnecessary labor, DIAGNOSE it.
You can climb under the gas tank (if your car is stock 4WD height, it's easy), reach above and front of the differential and unpllug the 3-prong connector on the backseat wall.
Then take a paperclip and insert it in the connector half on the wall, in the two slots where the pink and black wires were (check the other half of the connector for wire color reference).
Turn the key on and check the gauge. If it reads empty, your gauge is good and so is the wiring fwd of the tank. If not, you have either a gauge or wiring problem. And you can take it from there.

Hope this helps.
Lou

thankyou everyone for all ur input. I will diagnose the problem and post the results shortly

did you find the problem with the fuel gauge was it a open circuit bad sending unit or what i got the same problem and it sucks running out of gas happen to me twice please reply your results or if any or if u havnt repaired it thanks buddy

It seems to happen alot. Mine is full all the time. I'm going to check it electronically first. I understand if the float is stuck it will read full all the time.

One thing I haven't seen on here is a final conclusion. So lets see if I have this right.

Do the paperclip test for the guage. If guage drops to empty, then it's either the float or sending unit. Or is it just the float? Or it could be wiring to float/sending unit?

Any case beyond guage or ground being bad you would have to drop tank to correct it.

Not a wiring genius either but if I take my multimeter and get 90 ohm reading then it means what?

Not afraid, just fixing other things first and 1st time 3rd gen owner.

Please reply to above post. Of the people who had this and fixed it. What was it? Which happened the most, float, ground, guage or what.

I'm justing getting into this car and most of the time vehicles have repeatable problems. Just trying to work smart.

ive got the same exact prblem

I have the same problem also I did check the wiring and I used the paper clip and it went empty if I have to drop the tank what is the easiest way to do so.

im having the same exact problem with my firebird

you gotta pull the rear end to drop the tank sorry to break the bad news it really sucks but thats the way man i got the same issue with my iroc and its annoying

The way the fuel gauge works is some what like a game of electrical tug of war. Without getting into too much detail on that basically how it works is as the resistance increases so does your fuel level according to the gauge and vice verse. What 99.9% of the time causes your issue is an open circuit. This makes scene because an open circuit is essentially infinite resistance which would correspond to an infinitely high fuel reading (pegged). The opposite would be shorting it to ground with the paperclip trick mentioned earlier makes the resistance 0 and the fuel level should also read 0 indicating the gauge itself works. To troubleshoot this I would start at the gauge itself. I would remove the fuel gauge and measure the resistance to ground of the contact that connects to the fuel level sensor. Now your meter could show a multitude of things or just nothing at all. If the meter is unresponsive this means you have an open circuit and will need to track it back. Could be a bad connection a broken wire bad sender ect. If you get any resistance withing the normal range of the sensor (including 90 ohms) it means that either the gauge itself has an open circuit internally, a bad connection from the dash to the gauge itself, or in case of some constant high reading around 90 the sensor may be just jammed up.

ok i gotta question idk how to start a thred on here ive been on this website for yrs and just became a member im on my 4th 3rd gen now and i got a used msd 6al box and idk wtf to hook the white wire up to??? its the single wire for timing excessory to tell the box to spark so my damn car will start i got it hooked to the battery and to the coil and got a great key on power and this is the last step and i need help please some one help me im lost as hell and the summit tech line guy told me its not used on my car well um hey dumbass how does my pick up coil tell it to fire if its got no signal lol

I dont mean to sound like a ***** but the new thread button is like the Reply button on and subject list and everything. But I dont know bout you prob but SEARCH IS YOUR BEST FRIEND its in the top bar if you did not know. I wish I could help you on that. But try to keep the post on topic.

sorry I stopped posting guys. I'm the OP, I never fixed my gauge problem. I'm in the process of taking everything out and prepping for a LSx swap.

so i just did what bigbadlou said and when i inserted the paper clip into the two slots my gauge dropped even farther past full. what does this mean? what should i check next

im not sure if any of yall are still around since this is an older thread but any ways, my gas gauge stays pointed past full most of the time, when i bought the car to drive it home i said hey, i got a full tank. but after 2 miles the needle started shaking around E and another mile or so later the car shut down. so, stays past full untill it runs completely out. any ideas?

Yes you have same problem as me. Your fuel sending unit is bad. You need to replace that and you might as well change your fuel pump since you have to drop the tank I believe

me to, in my 87 TA

whats happens if it goes to full instead of empty?

You mean when you do the test?

Yes

This was originally posted a long time ago, but I'm giving it a shot. I bought my car new. It has a digital instrument cluster. Last fall a shop put in a new fuel sending unit and the gauge has read full ever since. I tried this yesterday with my boyfriend. I knew better, but he said start it and I did, he got shocked and now the car cranks, we can smell gas, the cluster lights up, he checked the fuses, spark plugs and wires, distributor. It won't start. Any ideas? He told me to get a fuel pump relay. I'm looking in the Haynes Manual at the wiring diagram and it shows that this plug leads to the voltage regulator HELP!!!!

Consider starting a new thread for your no-start issue; most likely it isn't related to the fuel gauge reading full. I'm not sure I follow the diagnosis that took place. The car wasn't turning over, then your boyfriend got shocked by (something?), and now the car is turning over? When was the last time the car was running?

The car was running 5 minutes before. The fuel gauge has been stuck on full for a year. We were trying to find out if the problem is the gauge or the fuel sending unit. After the paperclip bypass and the shock, now the car won't start. It turns over, the engine is getting gas - can smell it, the fuses, spark plugs and wires seem okay. The fuel gauge still said full. I started from this string, because that's what we were doing, and that's where the problem started.

Ah, I didn't get the context that 'this' meant you tried the quoted diagnosis. Did you check the fuse in the engine bay? It might be near the battery, one of the wires going to it should be ORG.

You can't get shocked with 12V. It's not enough voltage to get through your skin. You can get burned from the heat of a short circuit though, like when you put a paperclip where it doesn't belong and short to ground.

So.... where did he poke that paper clip? That's when your problem began, right?

Hi LaurieKe, first and foremost, what kind of car are we working on? Knowing what you've got may well help in the diagnosis.

And I'll bet Komet nailed it, your boyfriend likely shorted the fuel pump rather than the fuel gauge, to ground and likely blew the fender mounted fuse. Although you shouldn't be able to smell gas if that fuse is blown, I'd still be checking that given what caused the no start.....

I suppose that would help
1987 TA, 5L V8 fuel injected.
The fuel gauge was, and is still stuck on full. That seems like a minor issue now.
I have ordered a fuel pump relay and an ignition module. Also, found that the ignition terminal connector was broken. Will check the fender fuse. Thanks!

if you have one and are "saving" it and not driving. It's a bad plan. I have 87,000 miles and am starting to spend a lot of time at the parts store.... if the parts aren't discontinued.

You have wiser insight than most people. Yep, old cars are always teetering on a fine line between being nice and going to crap. It takes waaaaaay more effort to keep an old car nice than most people realize. And it goes downhill really quick if you get complacent at all. Lots of time, lots of money, sometimes wonder why I do it.

Voltage can be quite low... lets say 1.00 Volt (not enough to feel a shock), but if enough Amperage is present...
You WILL get Burned.
Some high-performance PC Processors will operate in the 1.00 to 1.50 Volt range...
But draw 400 to 500 Amps, and will most definitely burn you.

On the other hand, 50,000 Volts from an Ignition Coil will give you a mild Shock...
But the Amperage is very low (1.00 to 10.00 Amps depending on saturation) and will not Burn you.

I will regret this until I die...

About 10 Years ago, my best friend was killed helping me at the Race Track.
My Race Car at the time used Six 12 Volt Batteries (in a Series-Parallel arrangement) to power the Starter-Motor.

The Battery Bank sat in the Bed of a Pick-Up Truck and used long Cables to connect to a hand-held Starter Motor.
It connects to the Supercharger Pulley to start the Engine, then is removed from the Engine.

After a pass down the track...
the Crew (and my friend) would ride in the Bed of the Truck to tow the Race Car back to the Pits.

While in the Bed, my friend dropped a large wrench across the Battery Bank...
The combined Voltage and Amperage Potential of the six Batteries sent him about 6 feet out of the back of the Bed...
Landed directly on his Head, and that was the end.

Minor burns were visible on his hand/ arm... but the power stored in the batteries both shocked and launched him off of the Truck.

I miss you Brother! RIP.

That's heartbreaking. What voltage was it at?
If you don't want to talk about it any more totally understand.

The Meter on the Starter-Motor would show 72 Volts and 3,200 Amps during cranking.

The potential of the 230,000+ Wattage sent Him flying.

What really sucks is that he would likely be alive today if not for the head injury. Really sad...

Thank you.
You are absolutely correct.


I immediately jumped down to the ground.
On the ground, I could feel that he was not breathing...
But that his Heart was beating very quickly.

I immediately tried to give him CPR, but a second or two later...
blood was pouring out of his Mouth, Nose, Eyes, and Ears...
It was too late; his Brain was badly injured.

By the time my crew pulled me off of him, to stop me from continuing CPR...
I was completely covered in my friend's Blood.
At the time, I had no idea that the human body contained so much Blood.


Damn, I feel horrible about this... to this very day.