Why won't my fuel gauge change

billyhead

I have a query that someone maybe able to shed light on. I filled the fuel tank to the max last Friday, and when I started the engine obviously the fuel meter stick went up to the maximum. The weird thing is that i have taken the car out 3 times since then and it has not lowered one bit. Could it be broken and if so would it be straightforward to fix. The car is a Toyota Corrolla.

Danbo!

Depends on how far you took the car on the 3 trips. If I fill my car to the brim, and I mean to the very top, the fuel gauge will go a little beyond the max, and wont begin to move towards empty for a good few miles.

peasant

Depends on how far you have actually driven and how much fuel you have used.

Fuel gauges aren't scientific instruments, they're mechanised guessing devices

So if you've only driven 50 or 60 km so far, it could very well still show "full", it needn't necessarily be broken

Drummerboy08

Whatkind of mileage have you done in those three times you were out? Bear in mind, if you filled it right up to the top, not only did you fill up the tank, but possibly the length of pipe from the fuel cap down to the tank too.

So, it could take a while for you to use the fuel in the pipe, before you reach the tank, which means your needle probably wont move for a while.

Just all depends on the driving you done on those three times. If you done a lot of mileage, you could have a problem, if you only went to the shop, i'd say leave it for a while to see if it moves.

martydunf

this happened once to me.the neddle stayed up at full for quiet a while (~100miles) but it did eventaully drop. (twas a hyundai trajet btw)

so what I'd recommend is to drive around as normal to see if the needle will drop but make sure you reset the trip counter so you'll have a rough idea of how many miles you've left in the tank (~300-350) before you may need to refill.

CJhaughey

In my experience fuel gauges very rarely read in a linear fashion, for example:

Tank is brimmed with 40 litres, gauge reads full
Tank is half full Gauge reads 80%
Tank has 1/4 left, Gauge reads 40%

What you need to do is to work out what position on the fuel gauge corresponds to the real contents.
By filling the tank at various degrees of emptiness you will know what the position of the needle corresponds to the tank contents.

BTW Corollas are very bad for underreading.

zulfikarMD

My Civic has similiar problem. It doesn't drop at all even if i drive 200-300 miles. I just re-fill the tank to be on safer side :mad:. can someone tell me what could be the issue?

biko

Every car I've had have been the same. Needle stays on full for ages and the rapidly descends towards empty.

CJhaughey

My TLC has an accurate gauge, I think probably because the correct fuel load on a car designed to travel across deserts is more important than a car that is used mainly for shopping and driving through urban areas.

Dazzy

In my wife's ML 270 the fuel gauge stopped working. The needle went down as the fuel did but when I filled up the tank the needle stayed at the same fuel level as it was before the fill, in fact it kept going down as we kept driving until it reached empty.

Now everytime the car gets filled with juice I pull the fuse and the needle starts working again but you need to do this each time you fill up.

However, last Saturday I filled up the car and the needle started working again all on its own!

Beat that!

zulfikarMD

Could blown fuse cause Fuel Gauge to malfunction? In my civic fuel gauge never goes down even if fuel tank is empty? what are possible reasons for Fuel gauge malfunction? Thanks.

bazz26

This is normal on any Toyota I have owned anyway. The gauge stays above the full mark but after about 100 to 150 miles of driving it then moves rapidly south. You get used to it.