Fuel problems....

Paulie · Feb 15, 2007

First off lately my guage inside hasnt been reading right, when i have a full tank of gas it reads little over half a tank of gas but will act like a normal guage and drop fuel level to empty, seeing how its a half a tank and guage reads emtpy. anyone have this problem, im almost thinking its a sending unit inside the tank but i want to know other options before i drop the tank. also today i had a weird problem filling up gas. i went to chevron in snohomish, gas there is $2.35 a gallon, toyotas have a 12 gallon tank if i remember right, supposidly i filled 18.5 gallons of fuel in my truck using up to $43.75 exact. What the **** is with that, cant i call there main office and file this complaint. i got a receit for everything and it shows proof that i spent that much money in gas when its $2.35 a gallon on a 12 gallon rig. anyone care to help with this one too.

Paulie

Mark m. · Feb 15, 2007

I think a 85 Xtracab has a 18 gallon tank.

NotMatt · Feb 15, 2007

I had this exact same problem with my '85 xtra cab. Full tank would only read a little over half.

My guess is that somebody swapped in the wrong sending unit at some point, which could be the case since Mark says they do have an 18 gallon tank... maybe somebody swapped in a sending unit from a 12 gallon tank, which is somewhere in the ballpark as far as how far the gauge is off.

Paulie · Feb 15, 2007

i figured by filling it up with $35, gas being $2.65ish fills it completely and pump use to show 11-12 gallons around that, owners manual states a standard toyota is 12.3 gallons.

Paulie · Feb 15, 2007

NotMatt said:
I had this exact same problem with my '85 xtra cab. Full tank would only read a little over half.

My guess is that somebody swapped in the wrong sending unit at some point, which could be the case since Mark says they do have an 18 gallon tank... maybe somebody swapped in a sending unit from a 12 gallon tank, which is somewhere in the ballpark as far as how far the gauge is off.

guage worked perfect, never had this 18 gallon problem before. i filled the truck completely a few times and it was normal cause i knew how many gallons and average price it would be. its just in the guage on the cluster or something is ****in up in the tank. what would cost it to do this, ive never seen it on others.

84Toyota4x4 · Feb 15, 2007

Mine has about a 17 or 18 gallon tank.

As for the gauge problem, the armature inside the sending unit gets bent away from the windings over time with the fual sloshing the float around and crap, so it makes contact intermitantly and sometimes in the wrong places. Drop the tank, bend the arm back, and use the FSM test procedure to make sure the gauge checks out ok (light bulb trick), along with measuring the resistance of the sender to make sure it reads 100% through the armatures movement cycle. Been through this a couple times now.

~T.J.

Paulie · Feb 15, 2007

Nice.

BustedPinion · Feb 18, 2007

while its out get the ohm range from the book, and test it, THENNNNN test it wet also, that can change it and screw you for a re-drop! also, look in the tank and make sure that bouncing hasnt broken the slosh baffle loose, those suck!!

notstock · Feb 18, 2007

I had to get in there & fool with the sending unit on mine a couple years ago. It would hop from 1/2 to 1/4 & drove me crazy. My 90 runner came with a 17 gallon tank.