On this forum, a lot of people have complained about their fuel level gauge acting up. I had the same problem, and started with asking the GM dealership how much this repair would cost. Hmmm, let's see: $80 to diagnose, $250 for the parts and around $450 for labor. Almost $800?! So, I decided to tackle this job myself and bought the fuel level sender unit on line for around $80. (1/10th of the cost of the GM repair). Using the article on this website for the fuel pump replacement, I did the replacement in approximately 6 hours. This is with only 1 person, and as it turned out, half a tank of petrol. I would be simpler with 2 people and less gas in the tank....... After the replacement, everything works perfectly again.
Now, I had a close look at the parts that I removed to try to understand why it had failed. Many people have written about "bad gas" causing this, and Techron fuel system cleaner might solve the problem. After looking at the pictures below, my conclusion is that there is clearly a defective part here. There are two "slide contacts", that slide across the circuit board, acting like a potentiometer (changing resistor as the tank float changes level). The sliding contacts are almost all worn down, there is only one left which probably only made the erratic contact causing my fuel level gauge to act up.
A couple of conclusions:
I hope this helps all with this same small but annoying problem!
Now, I had a close look at the parts that I removed to try to understand why it had failed. Many people have written about "bad gas" causing this, and Techron fuel system cleaner might solve the problem. After looking at the pictures below, my conclusion is that there is clearly a defective part here. There are two "slide contacts", that slide across the circuit board, acting like a potentiometer (changing resistor as the tank float changes level). The sliding contacts are almost all worn down, there is only one left which probably only made the erratic contact causing my fuel level gauge to act up.
A couple of conclusions:
D- Don't waste your money on Techron
- If anyone has a source to buy just the grey plastic part with the sliding contacts (probably $1 to fabricate) this would be all that is needed for the repair.
- Don't let the GM dealer tempt you into buying a complete now fuel pump assembly!
I hope this helps all with this same small but annoying problem!