[felixr]

Ok guys, i hope this isnt somewhere else already but here goes.
I put gas yesterday 20 bucks and it went to just under 3/4 full. i drove it from hialeah to north miami to aventura and back to hialeah(that was mainly for guys like ford and sed who might know how far that is-for everyone else thats about20 miles round trip maybe less) all this was city driving stop and go etc. and another almost identical trip this morning . . . the reason i say that the fuel needle is reading wrong is because it hasnt moved from where it started. the miles to empty digital gauge was going down-it went from about 240 to about 194 but then stopped. then i tried to reset everything. i disconeccted the battery, pulled ALL the fuses that i could think would have anything to do with this like ecu,ignition,cluster etc. and NOW the miles to empty digital read out says i have 224 miles to empty. . . which on any other given day i wouldnt worry about cause if you park the car on a down slope it will read as having more gas and if you park it with the nose on the upslope it will read as less gas, but i just thought it weird that when i "reset" everything it reads higher . . . oh and by the way the needle still sits at 3/4 tank even after disconeccting and reconeccting everything. . . what the heck is going on here? the only other thing i can think of is a fuel filter maybe??? any ideas? oh and by the way i put citgo gas (87 octane/regular) yesterday morning and it has been under normal driving conditions since. uhm . . .what other info can i give? oh yeah im past the 60k mark so no warranty solution here. come to think of it though, it might just be a fuel filter issue cause when i went to crank it this morning after it had already been driven it stalled on me . . actually twice . . .the way an older car would've if the carburator needed to be cleaned/replaced. . . so im definately thinking its fuel filter. . . i will actually try and replace it i think its like 2 or 3 bucks at discount/advanced autoparts . . . i know i just probably babled for nothing but maybe someone else is/will be having this issue and this could help. either way let me know what you guys think. and also, how the heck do i find/change the fuel filter?

 

[Steve]

I was talking to my father the other night, who lives in Coral Springs, Florida. He was saying that there was a lot of contaminated fuel recently in Florida, it's sulphur content is so high that it destroys the fuel gauge mechanism inside the tank. Have you heard anything about that?

 

[felixr]

oh gosh sorry i forgot to mention that ( i knew i forgot something)
ok, thats the other thing i thought . . there WERE a few gas stations(mostly shell and texaco-same company or something like that) that had sulfur in the fuel(regular and mid grade only) and it caused the fuel gauge to read full when in fact it wasnt. . .only, i used citgo which is not to say there isnt some new problem or they didnt buy bad gas from the supplier or SOMETHING -lets just say i wouldnt be surprised. I will call citgo as a matter of fact to see if they know anything . . . if this IS whats wrong how do i check? when will it go away if it will, and what do i do??? thanks for reminding me steve

 

[Steve]

I'm not sure either if it's permanently destroyed or even how to check it. Sorry. I would guess though that you'd have to get right into the fuel tank. Is the fuel level gauge part of the pump assembly or is it seperate?

 

[carbonman]

I wouldn;'t go replacing all your fuel components just yet.

Fill your tank right up when you get a chance with a different co's gas, add in a bottle of fuel treatment to clean out the excess sulpher that MAY or MAY NOT have been introduced into the system

If things are still wonky, take it to the dealer. However I doubt its the filter, your probably on the right track with the level sensor.

 

[Elkane7533]

The fuel level always goes down slower when it's above the half line on the gauge. Carbon could be right. it might just be where it should be, so do what carbon said and see what happens

 

[hyunelan2]

I had my fuel needle stay up there for a while last summer. Said I drove 270 miles on 1/2 tank - normally I'm at 1/2 with 175 miles. I took it into the dealer, and they found nothing wrong, went all the way up and down on their computer sim. The next time I filled up everything was fine. Give it a fill-up or two and see if it corrects itself, before you go paying dealer prices. (I have a GLS, so I don't know about the miles remaining portion of the problem, but it's off the same sensor, isn't it?).

 

[felixr]

ok guys ill try your sugestions of filliing up and if that doesnt work i will try the cleaner thing if not just do it alltogether on the first fillup . . i'll let you know what happens thanks for responding guys 'ppreciate it

 

[pablo_elantra]

hi!!
ok I have this problem once and I Go to hyundai warranty dealer and they tell me the groung cable of the gas pump was disconnect,so he connect the cable again and never happend again, sorry for my english bur Im from PR. lol

 

[5port]

If you disconnected the ECU (reset) then reconnect it your miles to empty SHOULD change. Your miles to emtpy is based on your miles per gallon average. Once you reset the ECU your MPG average has changed. It will take a while for the ECU to recalc your MPG and give you accurate miles to empty readings.

 

[felixr]

well guys after this posting the needle started moving on its own . . .very slowly but it did. . . then i refilled and its moving fine . . its almost to the point where it got stuck so we'll see if it gets stuck again but i doubt it . . thanks again

 

[Steve]

Hope it returns totally to normal.

 

[felixr]

thanks again guys . . i have to report . . all is well in gasland . . . the needle that is . . . the other gasland . . . well all is well and stinky .. oh that was just wrong . . . wow its late . . . anyway problem gone thanks for all the help/concern

 

[intheory]

Ah ha! I've been searching for this thread. I'm going to plug in some search terms here that are related to this problem so it's easier to find. fuel guage, gas guage, gas needle, fuel needle, stuck guage.

 

[intheory]

Okay, well, I guess I still need help with this if anyone has thoughts. I ran a few bottles of fuel system cleaner through the tank over the course of a couple months trying to unstick my fuel gauge. Still didn't work. Took it to a dealer -- he simply "disconnected it and it started working again". Picked the car up, and the gauge wasn't working. Took it back the next week, he said "faulty fuel pressure" pump or something, cost me $200 (he credited me a little labor for the first fix not working). Picked the car up that night, gauge still wasn't working.

So now I have to go back to the guy again and see whats up. My wife is a little p.o.'d that they haven't managed to fix it and it is costing us some big bucks for such a small problem, plus this place is about a half-hour trip from our home.

Any ideas? I've taken the cover off the instrument cluster and checked the play on the gauge, seems to be fine. I've disconnected the cluster and hooked it back up, no change. I don't know how he "disconnected it" the first time, I guess he meant the fuel pressure pump/regulator/sensor whatever, but I don't know how to do that, or else I'd give that a shot. I've tried filling the tank up with the key turned to run per somebody's suggestion, and no change. This is just really ticking me off after spending $200+ and a few hours of my time.

Anybody got something? Even how I would go about disconnecting/reconnecting the fuel level sensor might be worth a shot if anyone knows how. Thanks all.

 

[felixr]

i suggest taking it to a hyundai dealer. you've already paid more than their diagnostic costs and what about an hours worth of labor would be. another 200 bucks TOPS and they woulda fixed this for ya there. i cant help ya with the cheap fix cause it could be several things. it needs to be diagnosed correctly.

the first thing you need to do is stop going to that "guy" thats half an hour from you.
and if you dont stop going to him . . . ask him to repair or replace your muffler belt . . . and be sure to get the top of the line replacement part . . . dont skimp, he'll know exactly what you mean.

 

[Kyrol]

I just had that fixed about 2 months ago it's the entire fuel assembley for the tank the sender float and everything are like one part. Mine would show full tank then after it would get down to gas light on fumes in the tank it would drop down to E.

 

[felixr]

i agree with you kyrol . . . .


that picture IS too disturbing to be keepin it up for so long!


lol

my fuel needle is starting to read wrong . . . i can fill up the tank and it will say 3 1/4's of a tank instead. and the miles to empty are all wrong too . . . course i am only getting about 15 mpg right now . . .

 

[Kyrol]

i agree with you kyrol . . . .


that picture IS too disturbing to be keepin it up for so long!


lol

my fuel needle is starting to read wrong . . . i can fill up the tank and it will say 3 1/4's of a tank instead. and the miles to empty are all wrong too . . . course i am only getting about 15 mpg right now . . .

Yeah It would do crazy things. The only bad part is you can't just replace the sensor that broke you have to replace the entire float assembly. Normally I couldn’t get more then just a tad over ¾ of a tank even with one of my super tank fill ups. That’s gas just about leaking out of the tank when it’s done. Normally good for over 150ish miles before it moves off of full. Should be an easy fix don’t let the dealership if it’s warranty dick you around with it.

Yeah the pic is becoming to much even for me I’m looking for something to replace it now.

 

[boydfoose]

I'm not sure either if it's permanently destroyed or even how to check it. Sorry. I would guess though that you'd have to get right into the fuel tank. Is the fuel level gauge part of the pump assembly or is it seperate?

this may need to be replaced if the fuel level sensor starts to bugged down it would be a great problem while driving on the road indicating wrong warnings.