Just bought a 91 88 from a widow down the street. 80k with the 3.8. It's never been touched, great car 900 bucks. The gas gauge is off. Once you get to 1/4 of a tank you are actually out of gas. Is this a common issue?

 

No, but now that you know what happens you can either adjust your fueling habits or change the sending unit.


Oh and congrats on your purchase and by now you know we do like pictures.

 

O'Reilly has the sender for 75.00 http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/de...21s%21assembly

 

There's no guarantee a new sender would work any better. Sometimes these things are just off a bit, and you note that and live with it.

 

Living with it is not so bad , unless you make a mistake or forget (ask me how I know) . My Buick gas gauge doesn't work (stuck on 1/4 tank) , and the 72 CS gas gauge likes to get stuck when it gets close to E . With my Buick I simply just do some math to get an idea on how many miles I can go on the gas I bought , and then I low ball it to ensure I never run out .

edit.... I love how this site underlines every other word I type .

 

If you cannot live with it, you can take the sender out of the tank and bend the float rod upwards a bit. To test, reinstall the sender with the tank off the car and hook the sender up to the gauge with jumpers, don't forget the ground.

 

IF and I'm saying this because it's hypothetical... IF the gage worked like that when the car was new, do you think it wouldn't be repairable? Of course it would. Either a bad gage or a bad sender. I have had my share of gages that didn't read properly and I don't care to just 'live with it' and 'guess' when it needs fuel. Gages are there for a reason and should be fairly accurate. I vote for 'fix it'.

 

As I've never run this car out of gas, I don't know how accurate it is. It's like any other gauge, never let it get below a 1/3. I would just live with it until it quits or you have to drop the tank for some reason.

 

OK, Allan, calm down.

My "live with it" comment was based on practicality. A gauge that reads 1/4 when the tank is actually empty is not that far from being correct and not that difficult to live with. (Who, by the way, said anything about "guessing" when it needs fuel? Even when a gauge is more or less working correctly, there's still some guesswork as to when to add fuel if you're the type to run the tank low. Should you refill at the 1/8 mark? 1/16? On the E? When? In other words, guesswork.)

How much work is involved in replacing the sending unit? I don't know. But if it's any effort at all, then it's more effort than getting used to the very minor inconvenience of remembering that 1/4 = empty. And if the fuel system is otherwise working fine, there's a sort of a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" aspect to my thinking.

Heck, the fuel gauge on my '73 Custom Cruiser does exactly this. When full, it's about one hash mark past the F, and when empty, it's on the 1/4 mark. This is not difficult for me to remember, and, on my car, removing the sending unit requires putting the car on a lift and dropping the axle on the left side of the car to remove the gas tank. This is FAR more than I am capable of in my garage and it is much easier to simply live with the offset gas gauge.

So, yes, Allan, I will "live with it," and I still stand by my suggestion that the OP do the same.

 

Heck I wasn't excited, so why should I need to 'calm down'? I didn't suggest you or anyone else couldn't 'live with it'. To each their own. I was simply expressing my thoughts on the issue - not dictating the requirement of a repair.

FYI my 73 CC gas gage worked fine. It registered the amount of fuel based on the float and the design of the tank. Basically it lied a lot at the top end but was accurate at the bottom. When I'd driven the car almost 100 miles it still registered full (because of tank design). BUT, it also registered E and slightly below E - and it was pretty much truthful at the bottom end. I found that out on a road trip where gas stations were few and far between back in the day.

My 78 Caddy gage lied all the time and I found that out when I ran out of gas at just under half a tank. That's also when I found out it had terrible fuel mileage. Resulted in 2 fixes - rebuilt carb (power piston spring and metering jets were wrong) and new fuel sender. After that the fuel gage was very dependable. Note: mileage isn't the best gauge of fuel remaining in the tank, especially in colder climes or stop and go driving. It also doesn't tell you when someone may have stolen gas from your tank.

Replacing a sending unit on a 91 88 is not a huge job if you have the time and tools. You would solve it your way, I would solve it my way; and I recommend the OP just decide what they want to 'live with' or fix. Admitted, your way costs 0$ while mine would involve spending some.