***WHY DOES MY GAS GAUGE NEEDLE BOUNCE AROUND***

[NORCAL/E30]

Some times its stuck on full other times it moves all over. Seems to move under heavy throttle in higher RPMS but not sure. Any help here? :)

Thanks, ABE

[808BMW]

Dude, its supposed to be a gauge of current MPG. The more throttle you give, the less MPG you'll get.

[DarkWing6]

Dude, its supposed to be a gauge of current MPG. The more throttle you give, the less MPG you'll get.

I think he is talking about the one that tell you how much gas you have in your tank not the MPG guage.

[NORCAL/E30]

This is freakin' great. :roll: :D I'm not talking about that needle I'm talking about my fuel gauge. You know as in empty or full? Thanks for the heads up though. ;)

ABE

[Jon325i]

If its the tank level guage you are referring to, then my guess would be that your sender unit is acting up. To your knowledge, has been replaced before?

Jon

[NORCAL/E30]

^^^Not to my knowledge. i just bought the car. The seller told me the gauge did'nt read right. The fuel light comes on when the tank is low. But I still want to get it fixed. I like to know how much gas I have. :? Where in Sac. are you? I live in Rocklin. :D

ABE

[808BMW]

:rofl:

Sorry about that, guess I'm teh stoopid.

Check your wires for anything frayed, maybe the sensor is broken or something.

[NORCAL/E30]

^^^No worries. It made me chuckle. :nice:

ABE

[Jon325i]

^^^Not to my knowledge. i just bought the car. The seller told me the gauge did'nt read right. The fuel light comes on when the tank is low. But I still want to get it fixed. I like to know how much gas I have. :? Where in Sac. are you? I live in Rocklin. :D

ABE

Near downtown. If you know where the Tower Theater on Broadway is, I'm less than a mile from there.

Jon

[Jand3rson]

Many erractic guage problems can be solved by taking out the cluster, checking to see that everything is seated properly, that all the ground nuts are tight,
and that there is not corrosion on any of the contacts.

[aaron_silva]

Mine was the sender. Get a new sender for ~$40. I check the back of the cluster but nothing was out of the norm.

BTW- I am in Elk Grove.

Aaron

[NORCAL/E30]

Where can you get the sender for $40? I looked on BMA and alloemparts.com and they were like $80 to $100 depending on which you need. Where is the sender at? Is it ann easy job to do. Also where is the voltage regulator located? I might show up at the Edge dyno meet on the fifteenth. 8)

ABE

[aaron_silva]

I got mine from BMA. It is on the driver's side, under the rear seat. It take about 5mins to replace. I would do it when you are low on gas.

Aaron

[e30vert]

Before you spend un-needed dollars on a sender and do the swap only to find the problem is still there. Check your grounds and wiring all the way through if possible. Sounds like you are grouding a wire that feeds the gas guage and that send the guage towards either full or empty. Under hard accelleration there is a shift of movement in cabling and potentially that is where the wire is grounding or not making a good contact.

These are the toughest of electrical problems to troubleshoot. but I bet changing the sensor does not fix it so see if it can be returned when you purchase it.

[axed]

ive had the exact same problem since ibaught my car (almost 2 years ago). i tried to figuire it out but gave up because i didnt get anywhere, and partly becuase the empty light still works right so im ok. but i wouldnt mind seeing your cure and trying it out.