Fuel Gauge acting up?

Question

2000 Oldsmobile Silhouette Mini-Van (Identical to a Chevy Venture)

The fuel gauge acts weird when the fuel is low. With more than ¼ tank, it works fine. But if you have less than ¼ tank, it acts weird. It will show a full tank one minute, then it will suddenly show empty and the low fuel light will come on. It will literally move up and down so fast that it takes only 10 seconds to go from showing full to empty, or back up to full.

I’m just wondering what could cause this. Could it be a loose wire somewhere? Possibly a faulty fuel level sensor in the gas tank?

Answer 1

thats odd..you should take to a dealer. there is most likely a bad wire or connection. or what ever they use to measure the fule level is broken

Answer 2

either the float in the tank is sticking or you have a bad ground.try cleaning the ground wire and the area then retightened.

Answer 3

It sounds like the sensor in the tank to me. The sensor is basically a float arm connected to a contact or wiper that move across an exposed variable resistor. When fuel level is full and the float is at the top of the tank, the wiper contact is at the top resistor. As the fuel is used, the float lowers and the contact moves down the resistor and resistance increases and the fuel gage reacts with a lower needle reading. What can go wrong is the wire windings of the resistor either wear out or come loose from the bonded surface and the circuit shorts to ground or opens completely and the gage indication is in error.

Answer 4

it will do that. gm is known for the floating gages.

Answer 5

The problem is the Fuel level sensor it is very common on the Venture Montana and Venture Van to act up in this very same way. the ONLY way to fix this problem is to install a new fuel level sensor cleaning will not work if it does it is very short term. i know this from pervious experience the part is around 200CDN aftermarket and around 350CDN from the dealer. both parts work one is cheaper. it is also very easy to change yourself with the help of a friend...

Good luck