need alittle help forum please. how do i fix my gas gauge which does not work is it simple or do i replace the whole instrument panel. thanks
Non-working gas gauge could be a number of things; Bad fuel level sender? Bad SI batteries? Bad fuel gauge? Dirty ground? Electrical traces need freshening up? In my case, it was a combination of a bad fuel gauge and bad SI batteries. One of these is the most common cause.
You should start by testing the level sender(s) which is(are) located under the rear seat on the passenger (and driver) side under a metal cover(s). In case you were wondering, they don't all have two senders, only the later ones (9/97 and later) and you did not specify your build date. They should change resistance with fuel level (you can unbolt them and measure the resistance as you pull them from the tank.) If they work you will want to pull your cluster and check the solder joints on the board. The gauges themselves can be replaced individually, but usually it is just a bad solder joint. You can also do the slap test. If you slap the dash above the cluster and it works briefly, then you have a bad connection in the cluster. Does it move at all when you turn the key on or is it just dead? BTW, I won't swear to this, but it might be possible that the SI board (or the batteries on that board) in the cluster is going out, but I don't know if this will affect the fuel gauge. Usually it only messes with the speedo, temp, and/or tach (because the SI computer doesn't care how much gas you have in the car) but I am not sure if any of the power or ground for that circuit goes through the SI board.
Yes, it does mess with it. Before I replaced my SI board and batteries, my fuel gauge would constantly read full. I replaced the board/batteries, and it read half when it was at 3/4 and was empty when at 1/2, so I replaced the gauge and everything worked fine at that point.
yes the gas gauge moves when it wants to. its usual on full the sometimes goes down to empty but most times is on full i am leaning to just replacing gauge altogether
You can replace it if you want, but it might not fix your problem if there is a bad solder joint on the mother board. You definitely have a bad connection somewhere on that board.
Yeah, I would start with the electrical connections. Your gauge might be fine, just the connections aren't. In my case, it just happened that my gauge and batteries/board were bad. I'd start by reflowing solder on your board, give it a freshening up and see if that solves your problem, or clean the electrical contacts, solder joints, and traces to the best of your ability.
