Fuel gauge out to get me

[Caliber]

I really appreciate this forum, I have learned so much about LC's reading all of the great posts you guys write up. So my question is:

I have had my '87 FJ60 for almost a year now. I usually drive her until she is pretty close to empty before I fill up. I thought I had the max I could go before I needed gas but in the last couple of months it seems that the guage is creeping. I used to be able to go till the needle was actually on E, then I ran out of gas a couple times so I have been more conservative. Tonight I ran out of gas again, but the needle was showing about 1/8th of a tank or more.

Has this happened to anyone else? Is this just the stock guages acting like they are twenty years old? Just wondering if this is something serious, thanks.

 

[Theecomer]

Perhaps the fuel sender guage is a little gummed up and getting stuck at the lower levels. Easy to check, but not real easy to get to to check though.

 

[zebrabeefj40]

If you roll up the carpet in the rear there is a nice access panel in the floor over the gage sender. My gage quit working. Pulled the cover to find the terminals were badly corroded... You might want to check the condition of those terminals. At the same time you might be able to pull the sender and check how it's functioning.

Nick

 

[Tinker]

FSM should have specs for resistance of sender - it's just a variable resistor & the gauge is just an ohmmeter. Only 3 things to go wrong: sender, gauge, & wire.

 

[Caliber]

Thanks, I got into it today to check the terminals. They were a little corroded, so I cleaned them up. I didn't have anything to check the sender with so I will have to do that later.
Thanks for the advice, that access panel is real handy.