Tanks not empty

[Nanonevol]

My gas gauge always reads empty. The sending unit is new. When I ground one wire the gauge pegs. When I ground the other wire the red light on the gauge lights. What am I missing?

[spider2081]

Sounds like the fuel tank/sender is not properly grounded.

Disconnect both wires from the sender and Identify which lights the low fuel warning light and which pegs pegs the needle. With both wires disconnected the gauge should show empty and the light should be off.

Add a ground wire from one of the sender mounting studs to a good clean ground on the cars body. The new ground wire should be fabricated with ring terminals and star washeres should be used to make a good ground.

I think the forward most contact on the sender is the one for the gauge needle connect the wire that pegged the needle there and see if needle indicates. If it does connect the other wire to the remaining sender contact.

let us know what happens

[lglade]

At the risk of stating the obvious, try swapping the leads. When I bought my car, the fuel gauge wasn't working, and swapping the two wires resolved my problem.

[Nanonevol]

Excellent suggestions both but as it turns out the wires were indeed swapped. Assume nothing! Might have tried that before buying a new sending unit. Anyone need one? Some evidence of heating up on one of the insulators - a bit of a tan tinge to it. Not something I'd be comfortable with near the gas! Oddly, the swap didn't work at first so I tried hooking up my old sender and it seemed to work as I manipulated the float. Hooking up the old one reversed caused the gauge to operate in reverse in a somewhat comical fashion. Then on another try I had success. Very pleased. I now have 100% gauge operation from 50% when I got the car. Thanks 2081 and thanks Iglade and thanks to Fiatspider.com!

[Fiatlanta]

So on a sorta related note...at what point is the light actually supposed to come on?

[spider2081]

The light on mine comes on when there is about 2 gallons left in tank or about 50 miles before empty.

[RRoller123]

Mine comes on at about 4 gallons remaining, 100 miles REMAINING. (80FI Spider 2000)

[Fiatlanta]

The needle on my gauge is pretty jumpy, so the light comes and goes for a while before staying on. I want to say it's actually on solid around 180 miles...have not pushed a tank to empty yet, so not quite sure how many miles I have left...been getting around 18-19 mpg.

Thanks.

[Dawgme85]

My light comes on solid with about 1.5-2 gallons left, but starts flashing a little before that, when going around corners and such.

[Fiatlanta]

My light comes on solid with about 1.5-2 gallons left, but starts flashing a little before that, when going around corners and such.

Yeah, that's what mine does. I thought I was sorta pushing it this last time, got a solid light before filling up and it still only took just over 9 gallons. I don't want to actually run it till empty just to see how far it'll go, but I'm tempted.

[spiderdan]

I don't want to actually run it till empty just to see how far it'll go, but I'm tempted.

https://youtu.be/TuEdU_lrtZk

[DieselSpider]

Mine must be pretty accurate as it showed less than 1/8 of a tank on the gauge yesterday and it took 10.003 gallons of diesel for 380 miles of rather spirited stop and go commuting. Last time I filled up was on July 14th and I have used the Spider to commute to work daily since then.

It cost me $23 to commute to work over the past month and for some reason I have been looking at picking up something more economical this past week.

[Fiatlanta]

Mine must be pretty accurate as it showed less than 1/8 of a tank on the gauge yesterday and it took 10.003 gallons of diesel for 380 miles of rather spirited stop and go commuting. Last time I filled up was on July 14th and I have used the Spider to commute to work daily since then.

It cost me $23 to commute to work over the past month and for some reason I have been looking at picking up something more economical this past week.

A moped?

[Fiatlanta]

I don't want to actually run it till empty just to see how far it'll go, but I'm tempted.

https://youtu.be/TuEdU_lrtZk

Come take a ride with me...let's see how far it goes lol

[DieselSpider]

Mine must be pretty accurate as it showed less than 1/8 of a tank on the gauge yesterday and it took 10.003 gallons of diesel for 380 miles of rather spirited stop and go commuting. Last time I filled up was on July 14th and I have used the Spider to commute to work daily since then.

It cost me $23 to commute to work over the past month and for some reason I have been looking at picking up something more economical this past week.

A moped?

Plug-in electric such as one of the Nissan Leafs that are being discounted to around $15,000 which went into the rental or lease pool and were never driven. Some have just the 45 miles that they were driven to the lease center and back to the dealership.