Fuel gauge sending unit

[lowrez]

Hi guys, new to the forum.

 

Got a lady friend running out of gas on a regular basis due to a bunk gas gauge.

 

Did some troubleshooting for her today.

It's a 95 V6 manual transmission.

 

History...

Near as I can figure from what she has told me is that the gauge first started failing intermittently a couple years back. Her fix was to rock the vehicle a few times after fueling and gauge would start indicating again. That stopped working some time ago. [ingenious but temporary]

 

Pulled the pump and there was a lot of scarring on the plate of the resistor and what looked like corrosion on the feeler/slide. Cleaned it up with some 600 sandpaper and tested the sending unit manually. Seemed to be working fine at all fill ranges set manually. Reinstalled it and buttoned it up, still working. Half an hour later she called to tell me that the gauge was once again dead. With the gauge indicating way below empty.

 

Ran a search for a sending unit replacement without any luck. Even the fuel pumps I found do not come as a complete unit, but only the actual pump itself.

 

Do you guys know of a work around or another Nissan sender that will work on this vehicle? I'm out of ideas at the moment.

 

Thanks in advance,

Kevin

[Rebelord]

Alkorahil. From what I remember there is a superceded part number that is the whole assembly.

 

Sent from fat fingers on S6

[RF600]

I had a bad sender on my brother's rig. Even though you have cleaned up the resistor board it may not work. Take a multimeter with you if you go after a used sender.

 

I recommend not letting the fuel tank go under 1/4 tank. The fuel should keep the board lubed.

[lowrez]

Thanks for your help guys. I hear you about keeping a 1/4 tank, but you know how it is when you're scratching out a living, enough gas to get from point A to B is all the thing gets. Hard to explain that keeping it mostly full costs the same after the first hit. She's had it for 10 years and it probably never had more than a 1/4 tank in it. Does look like there is a complete pump and sender unit available from Nissan [only]. Pricey, but may be the only way to go. There are a few Pathfinders in the local junkyard, I'll take a look at them but I have a feeling their boards won't look much better. This forum has been great, especially the FSM and ECU location and code posts. That's next, she has an intermittent high idle [1800-2000 rpm] with some missing going on. Thanks again.

[RF600]

You can still find a good sender at the wreckers. I would look first before having to spend the money for a new part.

 

Your other issue could be a vacuum leak?

[Precise1]

For the idle and miss, I'd start out x2 checking for vacuum leaks, then test the various sensors (temp, MAF, TPS, etc, LOL, BBQ) against the values in the FSM. All essentially free and need to verified anyway. That might be worth a different thread when you dive into it.

 

Also check the Classifieds here to see if anyone is parting out a vehicle, make a post in the parts wanted section to see if someone has one laying around or even will grab one on a junk yard run...

 

B