Wacky fuel gauge while trail running

[CO_Fletch]

So yesterday we took off for fins n things here in Moab with a half tank of gas, seemed like plenty. Half way through the tail I look down and oh crap!!!, needle below E, low fuel light on. Stopped and jumped out expecting to see a leaking tank (even though hadn't hit anything), no leak. Went into fuel conservation mode and started begging for anyone with spare fuel and the shortest way out. About 15 mins later I look down again and I'm back to almost a half tank again!!??

Anyone have this happen to them? Anything to be concerned about for the rest of the trip?

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[sr3tlaw]

Pray, and trust that the Japanese make a good SUV

Nice view!

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[CO_Fletch]

There was a lot of praying, followed by thank you Jesus!

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[Powder_Hound]

When your tank was on E were you descending, ascending or flat? As fuel moves in the tank it can affect the fuel gauge. There are some steep inclines and declines on FNT. Just something to think about.

 

[TeamLord]

The gas gage on my 2003 has starting doing this. At first I thought she was drinking gas faster than ever before, but then the gage was up again. I also have no leaks. Im interested in seeing what others have done to fix this. I don't want to be on the trails having a heart attack. Ha!

 

[CO_Fletch]

I was thinking the steep inclines were affecting it but I've never seen it go to that extreme. It also didn't go that extreme on the rest of the trail

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[MSRP.]

Gauges tend to become less accurate as the stuff in the tank ages..
Just reset your gauge every time you fill up and know your typical range, and fill up before then..

My moto doesn't even have a gauge... old POS...

 

[chmura]

This happened to me as well while in Moab running the Top of the World trail.

I had 1/2 tank and all of a sudden the needle was on E and the low fuel light on. Scary stuff as I thought I punctured the few tank at first.

Come back down on the trail everything corrected itself (back to 1/2 tank again) and never occurred again.

The only way to prevent this is to make sure you have a FULL tank of gas.

 

[kevinpt]

my 01 sequoia has a bad gas gauge that sometimes says its on E

 

[jrm]

Like the 3rd gen

the 4th gen has a tank that includes a lower chamber that traps 2 gallons of fuel so that if the vehicle is at an angle the pick up doesnt suck dry. So if you're at say a 25 degree angle, your fuels going to shift from side to side or front to back and the fuel level indicator is going to sink to the bottom of the upper chamber of the tank and indicate that there's no fuel.

 

[CO_Fletch]

This happened to me as well while in Moab running the Top of the World trail.

I had 1/2 tank and all of a sudden the needle was on E and the low fuel light on. Scary stuff as I thought I punctured the few tank at first.

Come back down on the trail everything corrected itself (back to 1/2 tank again) and never occurred again.

The only way to prevent this is to make sure you have a FULL tank of gas.

The next day out I made sure to fill up and all was good the rest of that day. I typically fill up before heading out but knew that fins-n-things would not use all of the 1/2 tank. That was the only trail we were doing so I felt confident. BTW, nice profile pic from TOTW

the 4th gen has a tank that includes a lower chamber that traps 2 gallons of fuel so that if the vehicle is at an angle the pick up doesnt suck dry. So if you're at say a 25 degree angle, your fuels going to shift from side to side or front to back and the fuel level indicator is going to sink to the bottom of the upper chamber of the tank and indicate that there's no fuel.

This makes sense, especially since [MENTION=46138]chmura[/MENTION] had a similar experience. With a full tank the next day, the needle never budged on all of Hell's Revenge and that was steeper than FNT.

Thanks everyone! If I find there was some other issue, I'll update the post.

 

[RonJR]

A friend of mine had a similar experience a month ago when we were in the Maze district of Canyonlands. Our route involved 185 miles between gas stops, about 1/2 of that in 4Lo, so fuel was an issue. We each took about 6 extra gallons along, but about half-way through he almost panicked on a rough section of the road when he looked down and saw his gas gauge below 1/4! But, as others here have reported, after a few miles of more level driving it came back up to above 1/2, where we estimated it should be. We breathed a sigh of relief and kept on going.

FWIW, I used 17.5 gallons (with an 18 gallon tank) in my '94, so theoretically would have been "OK" without extra fuel, but it would have been a nail-biter. My friend used about 18 gallons in his '07, so his 23 gallon tank would have been plenty.