The fuel gauge on my 82 Firebird bounces left and right, but its normal when idle, friend says put fuel treatment in tank, but Im too quick to think thats not gonna do anything.

Any one got any ides that its the gauge or something in the tank?

 

Its normal for our fuel gauges to be all over the place. Usually mine will start to fluctuate when it comes down from full. If I step on it hard it will move more towards full and when I come to a stop it will head towards empty. I believe its because of the older style senders that don't compensate for the sloshing of the fuel (someone correct me if i'm wrong) compaired to modern cars.

 

Thanks, thats what I was thinking, I have an 82 Dodge Rampage which sorta does the same, but thats a completely different car lol

As long as a read fuel levels at idles Im good, just small things as such bother me

 

I was the same way when I first got my car. Never had a car that did it and when it started bouncing i was like oh sh*t. But you get used to it and will figure out how much fuel you have left before running out of gas. My technique is when It stays on the E, take sharp turns and if it bogs down some, time to find a gas station haha

 

Yeah the gauge keeps accurate when at a stop sign or red light its just anoying.

 

When mine says I have a quarter tank left, that actually means I'm empty... Almost found that out the hard way

 

Have you solved your issue yet??

 

I don't think you can fix it, I just go by the how many miles I drove, then just reset it when I get gas

 

I don't think you can fix it, I just go by the how many miles I drove, then just reset it when I get gas

 

The bouncing issue stems from the Camaro/Firebird tanks not having any kind of baffle around the fuel pickup. Most cars, especially fuel injected ones, usually have a small walled off chamber within the tank that prevents sloshing from effecting the fuel pickup or fuel level sensor. This prevents the fuel pump from running dry and sucking air (since most EFI fuel pumps are internally cooled by fuel flowing thru them sucking air is a BAD thing). The upside is it also keeps sloshing fuel from giving erroneous level readings.
Unfortunately the crackheads at GM never installed such baffles in any of the 3rd gens, EFI, carbed or otherwise, as a cost savings. The downside is our tanks tend to bounce like '80's actors with Parkinsons.

 

That was good, real good. I have that in my camaros, and 3 chevy pickups I have owned.

 

Do LS1 cars have baffles in the tanks? That's almost a direct swap... Costs about the same as a new fuel level sending unit from what I can remember too. I think I remember them being something like $250... insane. But I guess the senders arent really broken when they bounce.

 

Not sure on the LS1 tanks, as I have no personal experience with them yet.
Some 3rd gen tanks bounce worse than others. My '83 Z28's gauge stays steady at cruising speeds, but under acceleration or when breaking when deviate about a quarter of a tank. My neighbor's '87 TBI Camaro would bounce constantly going down the road from full to empty, even at steady cruising. Not yet sure how the gauge will react in my wife's '88 TPI IROC.