Phatchevy

everytime i fill up with gas the needle on my gauge is stuck on empty. also the low fuel light comes on but eventually the needle slowly creeps back up to full and the low fuel light also goes away.

also sometime i'll be driving around and the needle will start to bounce around.

any idea how to fix this?

CHEVRACER83

Sounds Like Most Liekly You Will Need A New Fuel Sending Unit

Phatchevy

how hard is it to change out something like that? what is the part number? thanks for the help

Speedextreme

Changing it isn't bad. BUT, I found out that the sending units are different between some years. My Y2K didn't match the '02 sending unit I got from a source for free. Then I broke the '02 tryin to make it work and so I went a different route. Cleaning the original!!!

Yup, that simple, what it is, is the fuel is leaving behind a deposit on the sending unit, which is a reostat type (not sure on spelling but sounds like "RE OH STAT"). When you drop the tank, there will be three lines going into the sending unit/pump, plus a wire plug. Take the assembly out of the tank. When you do, you will see the "arm" the level sending unit uses. Look where it connects to the assembly. Take the arm off after you get the sending unit off the pump. Then you will see where the metal "fingers" of the reostat touch the surface of the sending unit and move accross this surface as the arm goes up and down.

VERY CAREFULLY take the "surface" part out of the sending unit assembly, it should have one clip on the backside that holds this in, and the two wires should come out with it. Then take a wire brush and clean the surface the "fingers" rest on, you can use a chemical cleaner like QD cleaner or brake clean also. But you want to do a little bit of scrubbing with either the wire brush or some emery cloth or real fine sand paper.

Now if you happen to bend the "fingers" out of whack while removing or reinstalling this "surface", don't get discouraged. All you need to do is drill about 1/4" hole in the back of the assembly where the "surface" sits. Then you can get up in there with two small screwdrivers and bend the "fingers" back into place! Argh, I wish I would have thought to take pics when I did this!!! Dammitt.

Once that is all done, put it all back together and it should work for another 100K miles or so?? Mine has put 40K on it since I did mine, and with chingering the "fingers" it reads a little below "F" when it is a full tank, But I am going to go in and just move the needle anyhow???

Laters.

KeukaZ71

my 99 does the same exact thing.

midnight_bowtie

iTrader: (8)

mine used to do that, right b4 the fuel pump gave out. changed the pump and i no longer have that problem.

joyrida08

what year is it and the last eight of the vin i sell auto parts for a living and its either going to be an mu1516 or 1517 i need the last eight of the vin and motor size to double check. btw those are ac delco part numbers. and the run about 260 bucks

2k4tahoe

my 99 is doing that i have the part but havent had time to drop the tank, but this spring its on, nice write up, thanks, i needed a walk thru too.