fuel gauge acting weird

[Charlie97L]

ok so i fill my tank up, the pump clicks off, and the gauge only goes up to 3/4 full. and acts like the car is actually 3/4 full. it's not like, hanging at 3/4 full like the tank was actually 100% full and the gauge was stuck. i have no idea what's going on. is there some trick to filling up that i've missed? i didn't think i was THAT big of a dumb*** to not know how to put, uhm, GAS in my car.

ps. call me sadistic, but i love having these little issues to figure out.

 

[Anomili]

My dad's BMW makes the pump click after only 5-10 litres get in. I usually just keep pumping until the pump clicks more then once or I've filled up enough so that I know the tank is full. However, I don't really know what would stop your tank from letting you fill up.

Dave

 

[GrimJack]

How much do you put in from empty to get the pump to click? How far does this get you? You could have a dying sending unit in the tank, or your float could be leaking and half full of fuel, causing a low reading.

 

[Charlie97L]

i'll check the next time... i think it was like 9.7 gallons when it was on like 1/8th of a tank.

 

[lagged]

hah. just, hah.

next time LOOK at the pump and see how many <insert regional method of fluid volume measurement here> you have put into the car.

 

[albertmdh]

mine does the same thing, but when you run it past empty, it takes around 18 gallons, its probably the sensor, doesnt seem like a time critical fix to me though.

 

[Jetfixr757]

These cars sometimes the fuel gages get sluggish and it is a problem with the sender, there is a quick fix for it but after a while it gets sluggish again.
William 89T

 

[mkIIIman089]

My sender guage is accurate at fill up... but thats about it. Driving (since its very hilly around here) it always will go to a low spot and seem to hang on it until the car is level and parked like over night for instance. Where it will read like 1/8th or so higher.

I don't actually pump the gas ever tho living in Jersey every gas station is full service...

 

[bandit]

adjust the sender in the tank and make sure is has contact through all motion, i did that and it fixed the problem.