Fluctuating Fuel Gauge??

[99camryLE]

I don't think this topic has been covered before, I tried searching, but it was to no avail. Lately, I've been noticing that my fuel gauge fluctuates while driving. Today, it was centered, but while I was driving to work on the highway (around 80 mph), the fuel gauge went up slightly. Then, when I parked the car, it was a little lower than when I started. The journey form my house to work is only 14 miles. Also, when my fuel gauge is at center, the odometer reads 192 miles, but when it is at the E, it reads approx 300-320 miles. Shouldn;t it read at least 350-380 miles at E if it is 192 at the half way mark??? HAs anyone else noticed these probs on their cams?? Or is my fuel gauge severely messed up???

[CamryPunk]

The same thing happens to my civic and my camry. Just the way that the sensor is that it goes up and down depending on the conditions that you're car is riding in.

[Blackhawk3D]

Yeah, if your on a slant your fuel guage will read differently.

[89SV21]

Lots of times the fuel gauge is not linear and it totally depends on what proportion of driving you do in the city and on the highway on that particular tank of gas. Sometimes i'll drive 180 miles in my 89 gen2 and the fuel gauge will stay on full the entire time because its been on the highway. Then once i get off the highway and onto city streets it drops to the appropriate level. hope this helps.

[REN69]

Same happens to me.. Mine will stay on half for my entire trip for the highway.. but then after I'm off the highway it goes down a lot. or if its full.. it will stay full for a while then out of nowher it will drop to half very quick.

[DAMON]

my gen 3 does this as welll it was at 250 at half today but I know theres no way Ill get 500 miles from the tank. half never seems to be half for whatever reason.

[randomman84]

i believe, once you hit the half way mark, it goes down a whole lot quicker. I know mine does that same thing..

[brownyy]

i agree with randomman84, about 2/3 of the fuel is above the half mark. I've noticed that going up hill, parking uphill will give a lower reading.

And i belive that somewhere in the car the Fuel FLow is monitored and fed into the fuel gauge. I've been crusing at 100km/h, turn off to go home where i can absolutely floor it (180kmh + ) and the fuel gauge absolutly plummets... When i stop those speeds, go back to driving easy the fuel gauge rises again...

[BlueCam]

i agree, mine does the same thing...i was happy when it looked like i was going to get 400 out of this tank...ended up being 300

and the price of reguliar just went to 2.30 here...i'm just a 17 year old kid...and this is killing me!

[99camryLE]

So i guess the best qway to asses the amount of fuel left in the tank is by using the mileage instead of the gauge.

[BLUEMEANIE]

99camryLE - in your car the gauge shoudn't move that much. sounds like your sending unit is on its way out.

[Knailgun]

^^^^^^----- true dat

[Blackhawk3D]

My 96 stays full for a while, and then drops qicker as it goes down. The drop from full to half takes alot less time than the drop from half to empty.

[BLUEMEANIE]

^ my 95 did that

[fredk]

your gas tank is not a square box, when the tank is full the level is over an inch from the top, if you shake the car around or park it so the drivers side is higher than the passenger side, you can get alot more gas into it, and this will make it stay on the full mark much longer. When your sender is straight out, it will read half full but the level will be about an inch down from the seam, this combined with the bottom tank corners being rounded is the reason that the top half is so much bigger than the bottom half, just realize that the gas in the top half doesnt go up into the rounded part, its stops just before the rounded part starts