Hey guys, I bought a 1989 Camaro IROC back in September. It has 136,000 miles on it, L98 A4, pretty much stock except for a cheap aftermarket muffler and a chip the previous owner put in. Originally the car was just going to be a fun/play/project car but due to some life changes I am selling my truck and will be pressing the Camaro into daily driver duty in the next month or two,

So, as you can see, I would really like for the gas gauge to work. The sending unit seems to be the obvious place to look, however a couple of the other gauges don't work either, (coolant temp, and the tach works but not accurate). I also did a search on here and rsaw that someone mentioned the original sending units were usually sturdy and lasted.

The sending unit replacement is almost $200 at autozone and dropping the tank is sure to be a pain in the *** and I'd be pissed to go through all that and not fix the problem. Am I basically going to have to bite the bullet and just change the sending unit and cross my fingers or is there any way I can check it first?

Thanks guys, sorry if these questions are elementary, been out of the third gen game awhile and none of my recent vehicles have required much work, lol.

 

117 views and no one can pitch in.........

I must be doing something wrong, none of my threads get any replies.

 

I once read a thread on here where someone was having a similar issue and they pulled the entire cluster out and found a few of the connector prongs bent downward. This prevented a good connection causing the cluster not to work right. I've also seen instances where some have cleaned the connectors and the circuit board/screws that hold the gauges. You can try those little simple tricks first maybe.

In my case, when I bought my 89, the speedo and odo didn't work at all and my fuel gauge only works kind of. When I fill it up, it's all the way past full and it's not empy until 1/2 tank. I tried another fuel gauge from a complete cluster I bought off ebay and that fuel guage did the exact same thing which tells me, it's most likely my sending unit or a ground (which I've yet to test). I replaced the entire cluster and now all gauges work perfectly except fuel. I will NOT be dropping my tank until the fuel pump goes, then I'll replace it all. For now, at least I can keep track of my gas even though it's half way right!

 

I once had a problem with gauges not working. I found I didn't hook up a ground wire again in the engine bay. Maybe you could go back and check all your ground connections too?

 

Yea I was thinking if I drop my tank I'll probably replace the fuel pump as well Crazy that the fuel pump is a good deal cheaper than the sending unit!

I do plan on replacing the entire guage cluster with an aftermarket at some point, but that won't be for quite awhile.

 

Yea I can check that.