Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General Fuel Gauge lying! Is it everybody?

Don't know if everyone has the same symptoms but here are mine:

1. I fill the tank after getting the Low Fuel Warning. About 12 to 13 gals.

2. Drive it about 60+ miles and the fuel gauge still past the F. My car makes 230 to 250 miles per tank, so after 60 miles should be at 3/4.

3. Then starts going down slowly increasing the "speed" when reaching less than half tank. At the middle gauge I have 180 miles on the Trip Counter. That tells me I'll get approx. 360 miles from my tank. I know is not true!

4. The fuel gauge indicates the level wether or not the ignition is off. I beleive that's normal. Every morning I can see the gauge lower than where it was when I left it at night. Could be the priming every time I start it?

Well I think this is enough. Any ideas?

That's how it behaves, all right.

I think it has to do with the shape of the tank. The Fuel guage measures the fuel level in the tank, but since the tank is not a perfectly round, graduated cylinder, the level does not correlate directly to the volume of gasoline left in the tank.

IOW, when the level reads 1/4, you'd think there'd be 3 gallons left, but there may only about 1.5 to 2.

The other thing is that the needle will go way below the red before the fuel actually runs out.

So, it's not lying, per se, just not very precise.

yeah mine stays at full for a while, and once it moves off full, it moves across the gauge with an ever increasing pace. im used to it and i have always attributed it to a oddly shaped tank.

It goes WAY below E, obviously not recomended, but sometimes...

I remember getting the Probe, its gas guage threw me off because it DIDN'T do that. At 75 miles, it read 3/4 full and I was like "what??" because I was used to the Contour's pointing to full until at least after 100 miles!

I've never seen a gauge that falls at the same rate throughout the whole tank. All the cars I've owned were that way. Stays on full for a while, then drops drastically. Them dern odd shaped tanks!

I stopped paying attention to the gauge a while ago. I go strictly by mileage.

For example, I average around 23-24 mpg. So I figure that even with horrible mileage, say, 20 mpg, I'm going to get at least 280 miles out of a tank. So I reset my trip counter each time I get gas, and when it gets to around 240-260 miles _ regardless of what the gauge says _ I fill up again. Sure, there's usually something left in the tank, but I've been told time and time again it's not healthy to let a car's tank get all the way to "E" all the time. And over a long enough time line, you're shelling out the same amount of $ for gas.

Yep, that's my car. I stopped paying attention to the fuel gauage a long time ago. I only pay attention to the rpms..