pathydaddy Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 ok so we went through did a new fuel filter put in a thermostat (old one froze open) and checked exhaust for being plugged... so heres a mini story with pics lets see what yall have to say numbers and figures here dont add up! ok so i pull into the gas station to fill up tonight.. here is where my fuel gauge sat as i shut the rig off as you can see its almost empty right? like real damn close now after the fill up this is what the pump says. so 13.9 gallons to fill it up thats after topping it off so much it was spitting gas out what makes me so confused is that my pathy is a 95 so it has a 21 gallon tank in it yet if my math is right 13.9 gallons should only be like 3/4s or so of a tank. or am i loosing its not in the pic but the odo shows 178 miles on a full fill up. i have stock 31 10-5 15 tires on it and the rig is bone stock and 110xxx miles on it and brand new trans can someone give some advise as to what is going on here fuel gauge off? (tach doesnt work) so cluster shot or the fuel sender float or what this is really upsetting me casue if i infact have a 21 gallon tank this means im gettin like10 mpg and thats not gonna cut it for me i drive 45 miles a day for work and i cant keep affording this any help would be great Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Precise1 Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 Ok, it looks like you are averaging less than 13 MPG. Depending on all the factors, you should be able to get between 15-20 MPG. I have never put more than 18 gallons in either of my pathy tanks in 5 years, it is usually more like 16 gallons. The gauges seem to read low for some reason. I generally try to fill up at 1/4 tank so I just ignore it regardless. As for your milage, could anything be dragging? Brakes or U joints? When is the last time a full tune up was done? Could you have a fuel leak? Does the truck run rich? Have you cleaned the MAF sensor? Have you checked the O2 sensor (the resistance should be 1-1000 ohms IIRC). There was a thread about checking the temperature sensor for the ECU recently. That should be enough for now... B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soccerstudd5 Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 My fuel gage runs about the same. I've never ran in out of gas but the low fuel light has come on once and it the indicator was more than halfway BELOW the E line... I've just learned how the gage reads from driving it a lot. And yes, your mpg seems kinda low. I used to get about 15 mpg without driving sparingly and then I took a tube off the air intake and now I get about 16.5. But 12 is pretty low. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tungsten Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 its the fuel sender mine did that same crap until i changed it and then it became more accurate i have a feeling they revised the resistor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MY1PATH Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 (edited) on my 89 there is a calibration screw in side the cluster, it varies the frequency going to the fuel and temp guage. I got it to where just shy of 10 gallons is center, 5 is exactly on the tick mark and 15 is just a hair toward E on the line. E is about 18ish and past the letter itself is 20ish but I almost never get that low. I suppose I could get it so 10.5 is center but then my temp would be too far off and right now it is perfect (180 is center) so the rest, I'm sure, is the sending unit. Edited November 15, 2009 by MY1PATH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morpheus Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 If you want to get an accurate reading on your fuel consumption, fill till full, then drive exactly 100 miles (or as close as you can) and then fill back up. If you repeat this process 3-5 times and then average out the numbers you'll get a much more accurate idea. If you find that the consumption seems "OK" then without taking the sending unit apart and actually measuring resistance's from it, you could always put a jerry can of fuel in the back and see just how far you can go till it runs out of fuel. If you get an extra 200 miles past empty, then you know there's either a sending unit problem, or a guage problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pathydaddy Posted November 15, 2009 Author Share Posted November 15, 2009 If you want to get an accurate reading on your fuel consumption, fill till full, then drive exactly 100 miles (or as close as you can) and then fill back up. If you repeat this process 3-5 times and then average out the numbers you'll get a much more accurate idea. If you find that the consumption seems "OK" then without taking the sending unit apart and actually measuring resistance's from it, you could always put a jerry can of fuel in the back and see just how far you can go till it runs out of fuel. If you get an extra 200 miles past empty, then you know there's either a sending unit problem, or a guage problem. i was thinking about your idea this morning about the gas can i have only owned it for 2 months so i dont know the history really of the vehical i did a full tune up when i bought it and the o2 sensor is with in values and the maf is very clean... im jus thinkin something between the tank and cluster is off any more ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ac92pathfinder Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 mine i get about 200 around a full thank i gas up at 160 and thats between haf and 1/4 cause i use it out on my paper route mostly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JesseLivingston Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 Get yourself a GPS and use that to measure mileage. I was getting terrible mileage until I realized my 33's make a 20KPH difference on my speedo. I was totally shocked to tell you the truth, I knew it would be different but not that much!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JesseLivingston Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 I get about 450K or 280MPH to a tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldSlowReliable Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 Don't trust your fuel gauge (or odometer if you have larger tires) I know my speedometer and odometer are about 15% off or so, so I compensate my miles I use.... On the previous note, my fuel gauge sometimes will go from full to 1/2 in no time atall, but stay at 1/2 for a week, then jump down to 1/4 or less, they are unreliable to say the least! Fill up. Drive while keeping trip miles. Fill up. Divide! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westslope Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 One option is to keep a hand-written log of all gasoline purchases and periodically enter the data into an eletronic spreadsheet. Record: Date, mileage (miles, kilometers), Price ($/gal, $/litre), Litres (gallons), Total cost. Key-punch into a spread sheet, and calculate miles/gallon or litres/100 km in the spreadsheet. I like to average over 3 fill ups, sometimes more. Fuel efficiency varies widely from one fill up to the next depending on where and how I'm driving. I know this sounds tedious but it can be rather informative especially if the fuel gauge is sending approximate information or sometimes no information at all. Will also help monitor vehicle operating costs and budgeting. If you don't know how to use an electronic spreadsheet, take a tip from Uncle westslope and spend the time and effort to learn it. For household budgeting, home businesses, retirement planning, investments, taxes, electronic spreadsheets can be extremely useful. Microsoft's Excel is fine but costs. The most excellent, zero-cost OpenOffice suite spreadsheet (made by Sun Systems) is what I use: OpenOffice.Org web-site Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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