When you drive your car, there are two gauges that, no matter what, everybody pays attention to – your speedometer, and your gas gauge. Nobody wants to get a speeding ticket or run out of gas in the middle of nowhere. But what happens if your gas gauge isn’t reading your fuel level accurately? Sometimes, your gas gauge might get stuck or randomly move around, going up as your fuel level goes down. If your fuel gauge begins to malfunction without you noticing, you run the risk of running out of gas with no warning, leaving you stuck without a ride.

The fuel gauge on your dashboard is controlled by a component inside of your gas tank called the fuel sending unit. An automobile’s fuel sending unit is made up of a buoyant float attached to a thin metal rod which moves across a resistor. As the gas level in the fuel tank gets lower, the float sinks, causing the metal rod to move. The amount of resistance that the rod encounters is translated by electronic sensors into a reading, which is displayed on the fuel gauge.

Before you decide that you need whole a new fuel sending unit, make sure that the gauge fuse is not blown (this should be a starting point for all electrical problems as it is easy to do and costs nothing). Check your vehicle owner’s manual or consult our mechanics to locate the fuse and check that it is working correctly.

If the fuse is still good, then it is likely that part or all of your fuel sending unit is malfunctioning. Diagnosing and repairing a fuel sending unit is not an easy job to do at home – it involves draining your fuel tank and figuring out what is wrong with your fuel sending unit and how to fix it, and in many cars the fuel sending unit can be very hard to access and remove. It is highly recommended that you consult the help of professionals to replace your faulty fuel sending unit.

Many people who notice that their fuel gauges stop working simply fill their gas tank every few hundred miles, but what if you forget? What if a friend borrows your car and isn’t aware of the issue, and runs out of gas in the middle of their journey? A broken gas gauge, while it won’t disable your engine or affect your car’s performance, can easily lead to a huge inconvenience, having to leave your car stuck on the side of the road while you look for a ride or walk to the gas station. Or, if you don’t even know that your car is out of gas, what if it results in an expensive tow to a mechanic and hundreds of dollars wasted on diagnosis and repair that could have easily been avoided?

If you are experiencing problems with your vehicle or have questions regarding Orozco’s Fuel Sending Unit Info visit Orozco’s Auto Service Orozco’s Auto Service at any of our convenient locations in Long Beach, Bellflower, Garden Grove or Fullerton!