Just wondering if anyone is having the same problem I'm having with the 97-02 gas guage, or maybe all 4th gens. My gas guage seems to be off sometimes. I can leave my house with half a tank, go a few miles or so and have 1/4 tank. Then, I drive back home and it is still at 1/4 tank or so. Later I'll start it up and it will be around half a tank again (or slightly below).
I've actually had 1/4 tank and went to the store to get some gas. By the time I got there it was on empty and I'll put 5 or 10 bucks in and it will bring it up to like 3/4 tank or so.
Is there anything specific that could be sticking or something else that should be cleaned, or is it an f-body habit? I think my friends 01 does the same, just not as bad.

 

same issue here

 

I think I heard that all 4th gen gas gauges are weird. I'm not sure if it's the sending unit or what.

I've actually not had any problems for a long time. BUT - the day I bought it and was driving it home (it was a couple hundred mile drive) I ran it down from full to empty in a short duration (1 day of travel rather than 2 weeks of normal use). Weird stuff was happening - sometimes the needle would... I donno, like, get a boner or something. It would be sitting at a quarter tank, see a hot girl, then would go WHAM up to full. But it couldn't keep it up for long - it blew its load and went back down to a quarter tank in a second or two. This happened several times. I haven't seen it since that day - that was almost a year ago.

 

The sending units are junk.. They are in the tank and are a one peice unit that also contains the fuel pump. They are about $400 or so for the part. What I do is set my tripodometer and fill it as close as possible. That way you can get a general idea of when its time to get some go-go juice. My guage will stay any where from 1/2 tank to full all the time, but when it needs gas, it goes all the way to the left and check guages light comes on, then it goes back to full. So, its telling me something. When shes thirsty, damn it shes thirsty!

 

ok makes since I thought it was just my car cause it bothered the hell out of me. On my turbo honda it would do the same thing while boosting but once I changed to a walboro fuel pump it became way more accurate.

 

Same issue on my 98, I told my mom about it since she drove it before she handed it over.
Of course she said "Thats because you put YOUR gas money into it! Of course it goes down quick!"
I've ran it wayyyy past the left redline and never got a warning light...

 

It's from the shape of the tank, on top it is large, on the bottom of the tank it is almost v shaped, so as the fuel level goes down towrds the bottom the gauge will change faster because the size of the tank is smaller on bottom. So when it is lower is seems like it uses gas "faster"