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Fuel Gauge Malfunction

kroache

Full Member
Joined
Apr 26, 2002
Messages
43
Location
Bolton, Ontario, Canada
Wondering if anyone else has experienced a problem with the fuel gauge jumping from full to empty when starting your Avalanche. Just had the local dealership replace the fuel tank "level sensor". They claim this is the second time they've seen this problem but I have not seen any mention of this problem on any of these forums. Thanks for a terrific site and lots of great information.

kroache
 
my gas gauge keeps going down I had a full tank on friday night when I picked the av up from the dealer and last night when i got home it was about a 1/4 full and I had 300 miles onit in about 36 hours. geez I cant get out of it its too much fun to drive.
 
Mine has had the gauge jump to dead empty and flash the low fuel warning when I know I have plenty of fuel. It does it at different times. Once when at high altitude and it would do it several times when cruising on the freeway. It would then go back to normal.

What's up with this?

 
Hey YELLOWAV,
Seems you may have the same problem as I experienced. The gauge would sometimes show "FULL" for much longer than it ever could (at one point I was thinking this machine has pretty good gas mileage) to showing "EMPTY" with the low fuel indicator flashing. FYI the part # on the work order for the repair is listed as FP NUMBER 25340157 with description SEN KIT
 
Mine, when highway driving, will sit at full and way over where it really is. Then it will take a drop, sudden. Even if city driving the top half of the tank is about twice as big as the bottom half ;D
I've learned to always reset trip odmeter so can keep track that way.
 
Glad someone mentioned this, thought i was crazy,,,ugh i mean the dealership thought i was crazy.
I had the same problem on my 2000 Z71. I drive about 3-4000 miles a month and watch fuel comsumption very closely. When i am on straight highway i know that at 3/4's of a tank i have 200 miles on odometer. Sometimes it will just sit there on 3/4s till about 250 and then drop down to half way between half and 3/4 or if i pull off and jump back in seems like i just lost about 3-4 gallons while sitting there. Dealership has always been super, just not able to copy the problem while driving around town. Just while running for long periods of time seems like it gets hung up for a while, but i never have experienced the empty/full/empty low light on............guess i am lucky for now.........
zeeya
 
Funky fuel gages seem to be a tradition at GM. I have had one GMC and a bunch of different Chevs and still haven't had an accurate one. I thought they had their act together when I got my Av but then I started getting the low fuel idiot light and the needle resting comfortably on E when parked nose down on my sloped driveway. The inconsistent/inaccurate fuel gauge thread has more stories.
 
:mad: z71, 3 weeks old, 3500 miles on it (two trips to the Joshua tree badlands, two trips to the mountains!) All of a sudden, with 270 miles I am on empty. Fill'er up and the gauge only goes to 1/4 tank. Now with 63 miles on the trip od. I am back on empty. I read the threads on the fuel gauge fluctuations but this seems to be at the extreme end!
 
:rolleyes:Hhmmmm... interesting.

Did your low fuel warning light come on in the warning center? If not, you could continue to drive short term until it shows, then you know you definitely need to fill up. At least you would know where you stand until you get to the dealer. If it did come on, then the sensor in the tank may be bad.

You could also try disconnecting the negative battery terminal for a few minutes, then reconnecting to see if the computer system resets itself. If this works, it'll save a trip to the dealer.
 
I would try to wait till the light came on as well, because it could be a sending unit malfunction and they will have to remove your tank, and we all know how much it costs to fill up an AV!!! :cry: :B:
 
Have you read the other thread on here about the fuel gage?
 
I'm guessing that there's one sending unit that controls both the guage and the low fuel light (does anyone know for sure). ?Given that assumption and the likelyhood of a defective sending unit, I'd stay somewhat close to home while experimenting with the message center as a valid indicator of low fuel. . . . running out of gas in the middle of Death Valley is no fun! . . . .

Hmmm. . . . how do I put Jerry cans on an Av?
 
yea I Had the same problem on mine brought it back to one dealer and they said it was a venting problem and that they fixed it. Went to pick it up and it was even worse, just stayed at empty the whole time with the low fuel light on. When i went in to tell the guy it was still messed up he just shrugged and said thats no good. So i ended up bringing it to another dealer and they replaced the fuel sender unit and it works fine now. Hope it keeps working
 
Chevy is notorious for the gas gage staying on full forever and then plumiting to empty all at once. That is one reason that I got used to the trip computer showing fuel consumption. Thats one of the few new options I really wish was on the 02.
 
just got off a road trip, and gotta report about fuel gauge!!!!! i fill up to the cap, can always put in 1-2 bucks more after auto shutoff. and fill to the max!!...... coming back from north carolina, i got 290 miles before the gauge got to 3/4, and then 95 miles to get down to 1/2 and about 50 more to be just over 1/4... went to put in gas and to fill back up to the cap, spilling out it took.... 21.67 gallons and the speedo registered 433.5 miles... holy smokes avrs... i got 20 mpg in a z-71 at 73-78mph with the ac on!!!!!!!!!!!! witnessed!! my father in law was ahead of me in his 5300, suburban and used right at 23 gallons .... thank chevy for good road mileage and this is no b.s. a true mileage check with two chevys on the road at the same time!!
 
Ack, this issue just started happing to me today. I guess I'll need to have the dealer check it out. ?:6:

Another thing I noticed when this started happening -- a 'thump' every 10-15 seconds coming from within the dash on the left side of the steering wheel.
 
In my case, the change oil reminder light came on the same time the problem with the fuel gauge was happening. Since the previous post I changed the engine oil (and oil filter), and reset the "Change Oil" meter. I've put on about 800 miles and the fuel gauge has worked properly since then. No other changes were made to the Av. Does this make sense to anyone?
 
Had To Bring It Back to The Dealer Today After Two Months of working fine. The first time around they just replaced the fuel sender unit which is located inside the tank. The Gauge worked fine for about two months and then monday morning when i started it the gauge went right back up to full and there was less then half a tank it there. So I brought it in today (Tuesday) and they checked it all out and said it was the whole in tank full unit (Part# 25345024) I Believe it was called the fuel module. Service guy said the new one is a whole new redesign due to defects in the old one. So they ordered the part and will install it next week. Just wanted to let everyone know incase this was happening to them.
 
I am in my second Avalanche (drive a lot) and my new one had a fuel gauge that did not drop off of full until I had 150 miles or more on a full tank. Took it to my Chevy service manager and he said that there was a problem with the sensor and replaced it under warranty. Too soon to tell if problem is corrected. Didn't have this problem with first Av. Could go 400+ miles before gassing up. Love this vehicle!
 
Just wanted to post this, since my AV is already at the shop, and as soon as I hear what is wrong with it I'll post that.

My gas gauge quit registering how much gas was in the tank and just reads "Full" all the time now (and I KNOW it's not full).

It went into the shop yesterday, a friend of mine said it could be either a fuse or maybe a floater in the tank is stuck or something.

Glad it's all under warranty and I'm hoping they don't have to pull the tank out, but I will let everyone know what was wrong when I find out!

;D

Kim
 
Can we place bets on the cure?

I bet sending unit is bad and they replace it
 
I bet the service Manager will start up the truck, and the guage will start working all on it's own. Does'nt that always happen :8:
 
justhrowit said:
I bet the service Manager will start up the truck, and the guage will start working all on it's own. ?Does'nt that always happen ?:8:

That happened to a friend of mine who's electric window on the driver's side quit working on her Miata, the minute they got it to the dealership, it started working.

Oh well, will keep ya'll updated, STILL haven't heard from them yet...

Kim
 
Turns out the whole fuel gauge was bad, it's being replaced and they "hope" to have it out tomorrow, but more likely next week.

Phew, nothing major!

Kim
 
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