Expert: Roland Finston - 8/28/2011

Question
QUESTION: i have a 2001 voyaguer and today when i went out to drive it the battery was dead. i got a jump start from neighbor. the battery light was on so i drove the van for about 10 minutes to help charge the battery. during drive the fuel gauge, speedo and temp gauge were fluctuating all over the place. after returning home and shutting off van all the gauges were not at correct places. van would not restart so i bought new battery and now van runs fine. i read your advice to someone about recalibrating the gauges,i tried it and the speedo and temp gauges reset but not the fuel gauge.the sof#was 4.0 and also said EcodeE and then E end before going thru the recalibration. any advice on getting fuel gauge to work properly?

ANSWER: Hi Robin,
You didn't say what the fuel gauge is showing, so tell me about that when you write back. I would suggest that you do the calibration procedure again and this time observe carefully to see if it shows empty, 1/4, 1/2, full as it steps through the procedure. Also, I wonder if when you drive it does the battery light still stay 'on' or doesn't it, and what is the position of the needle on the gauge that shows the battery voltage?
Roland

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: the battery light is no longer on. the fuel gauge is pegged past full and the needle did go to different positions during the recalibrations. yes i did try to recal 2 or 3 times after initial attempt. thank you for responding as promptly as you did. i really appreciate your help

Answer
Hi Robin,
The fact that the needle does move through the range of motion suggests that the problem is not in the instrument cluster proper. It is either in the fuel level sensor which is inside the fuel tank, or one of the 2 wires that are connected to that sensor: a. to the body control module under the dash or b. to a nearby ground point, or lastly some defect in some aspect of the internal function of the body control module. I would suggest that you go to an Autozone or similar nationwide parts store where you have first verified that they do free fault code readouts using a plug-in fault code reader and have them try for such a readout. Let me know what fault code numbers they find present which may give us a clue.
The next step if there are no codes would be to check the wiring from the fuel tank level sensor to those two locations using a volt/ohm meter between the plug at the body control (under the dash) to see what resistance it shows and whether as you fill or empty the tank that resistance value changes which would show if the wiring and level sensor were working properly or not. If so, then the issue is with the body control module. If not, then the ground wire could be verified to be tightly connected. Finally, the level sensor can only be tested and replaced by dropping the fuel tank out of the vehicle to gain access to the top of the tank and thus to remove the fuel pump and level sensor which are combined in a single unit. The level sensor can be replaced without replacing the fuel pump. But there is considerable labor charge involved to do that job unless you do it yourself.
So see what a free fault code readout shows if you can obtain that. Otherwise an independent shop would charge around $40 for a readout. The other alternative is to just keep track of how far you have driven since last filling the tank and get gas before you calculate it will run out.
That is inconvenient but an alternative is money it tight.
Roland
PS Please 'rate' my answer. Thank you