Hi all, as the title says, neither my gas gauge or trip meter work. This is a problem for obvious reasons. The only way i have of knowing how much gas is in the tank is writing down the mileage on the odometer when i fill up. I know the gas gauge is a common problem, and would probably just break again if i did fix it, so i figured maybe the trip meter is easier to fix. How do i go about this, or should I just try to fix the gas gauge?

1995 Camaro Z28
Holley Hooker cat-back exhaust
CAI
177K miles

 

my trip meter quit and all i had to do was get to it first and then pushed the gear back into place. i eventually pulled back out though so u would need to figure out a way to make sure it stayed. for the gauge, check the wireing to the tank and see if theres a bad spot in it.

 

well my trip meter still runs, just completely inaccurately and non-linearly (is that a word?)
For instance, if i reset it and drive for 200 miles, it will read about 5 miles on the trip meter. this led me to believe that i could simply multiply the reading by 40 and calculate the miles since last fill up (I'm pretty good with math so i would have even been happy with that!)
However, if i drive 100 miles it only reads 1.1 or so on the trip meter. Thus making it impossible to have any idea how much gas i have aside from monitoring the odometer at each fill up.
I guess i should just go read up on how the odometer even works, i have no idea if it is even a mechanical or electrical device (i could image both being possibilities, i studied the original odometer in a class called development of technology, lol - though im sure its electrical or electro-mechanical now.) I just thought there would be a quick easy answer, seems like a simple device.
I will check the wires as soon as i can get it on some jacks, hopefully by thursday, but i had read that the problem was more with the sensor inside of the fuel tank and the shape of the fuel tank that causes this problem.

 

yep thats the same thing mine did. the gear that makes it go round was out of place just enough to were it caught once in a while. u have to take the gauge cluster out to get to it. so the gas gauge works? some of these cars run out of gas at 1/4 to 1/8 tank. i always just figure i have a empty tank at 1/4.

 

no, the gas gauge does not work (see title), the gauge reads like WWWAYYYY past full all the time,that's why im here. anyway, so thats crazy, i didnt think the solution could be that simple. All you did was remove the glass in front of the gauges and roll it around by hand a little bit? do u have a link to a good guide to getting that glass out of the way, or could you explain it to me? thanks for your help btw man, it sucks not having any idea how much gas i have. Also, while im in there can i just remove that orange pin off the gas gauge, its annoying and it's so far off it touches the temperature gauge lol.

 

u need to get at the backside of the gauge cluster. thats were the gears are. once u get it out ull see what i mean. i found the problem putting in a white face gauge backing. i am thinking the float may be stuck in the tank or the sending unit may be bad or u have a grounded gauge wire along the line.