I'm not sure if this is by design or if my sender is faulty. My '83 has a low fuel warning chime which works fine. However, the car runs out of gas right before the gauge gets in the orange. Seems to me the fuel chime should come on at that point, and it should run out when the gauge is truly reading empty. Any of you with 80's era Delta's experience this? y the way this is on a 98 but it appears there are more Delta owners around. Thanks.

 

My Delta is not 80s, but I would look into the sender based on what you are describing. See if it's getting hung up somewhere maybe.

My 74 ran out of gas in the guys driveway that I bought it from. It was pegged at E when it did.

 

GM gas gauges are hardly precision measuring devices. They are accurate enough however, to let you know you've pushed your luck too far.

Just don't run it close to empty.

I put a wagon tank into mine, so empty is never really empty. I think I crammed 28 gallons into it once.
Hopefully all the dust and other crap settles to the bottom, and never gets sucked from the sump.

 

Yep, mine says I'm empty anytime I take a turn too fast..

 

There is no sump in a gas tank. A sump is a low point in the floor of a room or bottom of a tank or other storage container into which liquid can drain. All fuel pick-up systems in gas tanks extend down from the top, rather than up from the bottom, so no debris on the bottom of the tank is ever supposed to reach the level of the pick-up pipe or get into the fuel line. There is a filter over the end of the fuel pick-up pipe as an added measure to keep solids out.

But it's not uncommon for gas tanks that are many years old to have accumulated sludge and so forth in the bottom. It just stays there until and unless the tank is removed and cleaned.

I think you're right, though, in that the OP's problem is really just expecting too much precision out of a not-very-precise device. He probably could fix it, but at what cost? Removing the tank and replacing the sending unit is not trivial. In a situation like this, if the fuel gauge is otherwise working ok, I would just do as you say and fill the tank when it gets down to about 1/4.

 

The thing is it just seems like it's off more than seems acceptable. My '83 Bonneville and '87 Caprice are both dead accurate believe it or not, as soon as the needle is all the way past E it's done, no sooner or later. After nearly 30 years though and the Olds still has the original tank, the sludge or age sounds likely. I would like to see if it's like that with all of them.