Fuel sensor going bad?

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Kaderabek

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Jan 2, 2003
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Location
Asheville, NC
1999 Land Cruiser, 75,000 miles +/-, low fuel indicator comes on and gauge level drops to zero every now and again, despite half full to full tank. Restart and the problem goes away. I don't own an FSM for this truck but I did check the archives first so bear with me -- fuel sensor in the tank going bad?

Thanks,

TJK
 
Todd:

I can shoot you a FSM page for that if you like.
 
That would be most excellent. Email a pdf to todd@larkbooks.com? Or I can give you a fax number too.

Did this ever happen to you? More annoying than anything else, doesn't happen very often.

Thanks,

TJK
 
Todd:

Fax please. Never happened to me and I have never heard of it happening i.e. on this board. That is odd. But I know that the FSM is going to recommend checking the resistance which means tearing into the dash.

JL
 
Tearing into the dash. Sounds like a good job for the person who drives this rig.

(828) 236-2869

Thanks!

TJK
 
Be there tomorrow Todd, my FSM is at home.
 
Todd:

I forgot the damn thing. I will try and remember for tomorrow. Sorry
 
Don't sweat it. Sounds like you have a big project underway and all the fax will do is confirm that I hope the problem will go away on its own. :)

TJK
 
Kaderabek said:
Tearing into the dash. Sounds like a good job for the person who drives this rig.

(828) 236-2869

Thanks!

TJK

When does your wife start tearing into the dash?
 
About the same time Jukelemon's wife starts the install of the OME on his 100.

TJK
 
Not a chance with the wife BUT my daughter, that is a different story. She will insist on helping as she did last night with bleeding a clutch system on my 40.

Todd:

Speaking of wife, she has misplaced my Vol. 1 FSM which has all of the electric service protocols. I have Vol 2 (because it was already in the shop) but it does not cover your issue. I will keep looking (have to anyway now just to find it for future use) but you may want to ask another for the info if you need it sooner than this week's end.

JL
 
Alright Todd, here we go.

I will say it in here but I will also fax this to you Monday.

There are 4 main wire harness connectors that look to be right under the dash-two to the left of the steering wheel and two to the right. They are marked (in the FSM) A-D going from right to left i.e. A is the furthest right connector. Each connector has 20 pinouts-10 top, 10 bottom. They are numbered 1-10 (left to right) on the top and 11-20 (left to right) on the bottom. So, essentially it looks like a rectangle.

OK. The fuel gauge has two pinouts- they are A3 and A4. A5 is the ground of the connector-at least I think so. It shows a test from pin A5 to ground as being "continuity" or "constant". Pin A3 to ground shows a response of "fuel gauge floats up". Pin A4 to ground shows a response of "fuel gauge floats down". With a Multi Meter set to DC voltage, both pinouts should be at .5v i.e. Pin A3 .5v and Pin A4 .5v.

My thought is that these two pinouts might be the issue i.e. loose in some way or corroded.

As well, there exists the actual sending unit which is located/part of the fuel pump. You will need to take out the rear seats for this check. Not too bad though. Take out the seats, seat anchors, scuff plate, peel carpet back and there you will find your fuel cell. All that it says is to test Pin 4 and 5 on the sending unit (top left and top right pins) for a resistance reading or .2-3 ohms. If it is out of this spec, guess what, new fuel pump because the sending unit is integrated.

Good luck. Hope that helps.
 

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