Temporary gas gauge problem

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Ken Crockett

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First: I filled up the gas tank on the way to work yesterday morning. On the way home, just after getting on the freeway, I suddenly heard the warning tone indicating low fuel. Looked down at the gauges to see the Low Fuel warning where the odometer usually is (04 ST), and the gas gauge pegged to the bottom of the display. Normally when the engine is off, the fuel indicator is even with the 'E' on the gauge, not all the way at the bottom.



This continued until, after slowing for traffic after ~10 miles, I happened to glance down at the gauges again and found everything normal. It stayed that way all the way home, and all the way to work again today.



I'm open to any guesses as to why this happened and what it might cost to get it fixed. Thanks in advance!
 
I had the same thing happen twice last winter. When I checked with my Ford Dealer he told me this was a common issue due to Gas additives in todays gas. The additives create a film on the sending unit and it reads wrong. He suggested changing to a different gas station to see if it would solve the problem. Their suggetsion was a bigger chain with more volume(not the no name corner gas station).



Both times happened right after a fill up, about a week apart and the second time I noticed the guage actually went up, just extremely slow. I haven't seen this happen again and it's been about six months. This could be your issue.



Denis
 
Had a very similar symptom and my Ford dealer recommend stop using the large chain that sells 90% of the gas in our local area. He said that all the people that have been coming in complaining of a "sluggish-to-rise" fuel guage were buying gas from the same station, and they must have something wrong with their gas.



The Einstein at the dealer repair center gave the advice he did, not recognizing that his is a local/community Ford dealer, and that most of his customers are local and most buy their gas from that same, local station that is only 1/8 mile from the dealership. So he was guilty of an "attribution error"; assuming that the cause was attributed to a common link, but not recognizing that the common link was SHARED by most in the sample pool.



I think there is a problem with the Ford sensor guage, IMHO.



TJR
 
Same issue with me last month, have always used Chevron or shell gas, never a prob.

Filled up at a Vallaro station to save a few pennys.

Next day I have a 1/4 tank WTF, Thought somehow someone stole my gas, no way as the ST was in my garage all night.

called my bud at the ford dealer, he said it is a very common problem today, put a can of tecrolene in the tank, problem solved.

Your dealer is correct, all gas today is not created equal.
 
My gauge stuck at 1/2 after fill up the other day. First time it did it. Drove it later in the day and it slowly came up to full. After hearing other stories about it on this board. I figured it was ok..
 
I heard that our local ESSO(EXXON in the US) hsa the same truck filling it's tank as most every other local gas bar. I guess it's hard for competitors to say they have better gas when the same tankers fills their tanks.:p



IMO....if Ford is claiming a "common problem" with their gas gauges maybe they should be proactive and try to find a way for their gas gauge to interact better with todays new fuel.



On the other hand, I heard GMs also have had this issue so I guess it's a case of what came first "the gas gauge or the gas".:D



Denis
 
Denis B said:
IMO....if Ford is claiming a "common problem" with their gas gauges maybe they should be proactive and try to find a way for their gas gauge to interact better with todays new fuel.
Click to expand...



That's what I think as well. I think their guage is a little too sensisitive. Our new Fords are the only one to have this problem of our new vehicles (we have had two new '04s, and two new '07s), and the Explorer platformed vehicle was the only one to have been intermmitently hit by this...and we exclusively get gas at the same station for years for all our vehicles.



Could we have had a bad tank or two of gas....I kinda doubt it.



TJR
 
F.W.I.W> Was told at Ford shop to NOT use BP fuel. The additive they use will plug injectors and cause sticky fuel guage in Ford products.
 
Tom B,



You said FWIW...What is that advice worth? Sounds like yet another dealer trying to lay blame away from Ford.



Especially funny since Ford "recommends BP"...says so on the gas cap/gas filler door.



TJR
 
I had the same problem last month when I filled up. At least you got a lot of responces to you post on the forumn. I got very little.:rolleyes:
 
3G, I'm agreeing with TJR on the fuel sensor thing. Denis B is correct, it very well could be the fuel level sensor in the tank.



My 04 had that exact problem. I filled up (full) started the trac and the guage went up some then dropped to E. After driving it a few minutes it went back to normal. It happened again a couple of weeks later, I drove it straight to the dealership so they could see (was under warranty then)



I wish I knew what it cost to fix it, since it was under warranty the price was never put on the invoice. I can tell you that in order to fix it, the tech needs the tank to be low on fuel to make it easier for them to drop it. (plus it helps you in that you don't lose much gas during the repair)



Call and find out what their labor cost is, I think the job takes at the most 2 hrs...(I'm sure they could do it in less time though) The techs that frequent this site could enlighten you more on time.
 
GM,



Right!



Ford service reps like to blame intermittent problems on the driver, the road, the gas, even pixies that make the problems non-reproducible in the shop,...you name it.



But the more likely fact is that there is a problem with the guage sensor, and once replaced with a replacement part the problem goes away for good.



TJR
 
Try a bottle of techron in the tank, this problem is coming up on many other ford sites.

The cause is reformulated gas with a higher sulphur content.

The sulphur is causing resistance problems on the sending unit, so it has been said.
 

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