Alright so I have this 98 civic ex coupe and the gas gauge is not accurate at all. It fluctuates by a half tank. I will fill it up all the way and as the day goes on, it will go to half way and then back up to full. Or it will be at a half tank, and go to empty. What can I do to fix this? The car is completely stock and has 160k miles. Thanks in advance.

 

New sending unit from your local auto parts store most likely

 

I think its just where the pick up is. If you accel hard, watch the needle it will drop down and look like you have less gas. At least thats what im finding with my car. It's a 2000, but I did only get it like 4 days ago.

 

i have the same problem, my needlw randomly goes up and down,!

 

TO a certain degree -- the honda gas gauges aren't accurate really... But it shouldn't be jumping all over the place -- that's when you should be replacing parts. Unless it does it only when you're zooming around corners or accelerating hard - that's normal.

 

I parked up a really steep driveway and the gas was at empty, after driving it 5 minutes later its at half.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Simple_Sauce &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I parked up a really steep driveway and the gas was at empty, after driving it 5 minutes later its at half.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thats been normal with the past 2 hondas ive had. I wouldnt worry unless its bouncing randomly. If it is, then id check the sending unit.

 

the reason for it going down while on an incline is the sensor for the fuel level is toward the front of the tank and the fuel floats to the back, i have a 98 ex w/ 60 k miles and it does the same thing

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by z6hatchboy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">New sending unit from your local auto parts store most likely</TD></TR></TABLE>

And if you go right out and buy one without being sure you're a retard.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Simple_Sauce &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Alright so I have this 98 civic ex coupe and the gas gauge is not accurate at all. It fluctuates by a half tank. I will fill it up all the way and as the day goes on, it will go to half way and then back up to full. Or it will be at a half tank, and go to empty. What can I do to fix this? The car is completely stock and has 160k miles. Thanks in advance. </TD></TR></TABLE>

There's one of two things it most likely is, A) The fuel sender unit, or B) the gas gauge.

People say stupid **** like "if it's the gas gauge it just won't work" - this is entirely NOT accurate. I was having a fuel gauge problem that had symptoms identical to those you'd get from a bad sending unit - and I tested the sending unit with a volt meter 6 ways from Sunday - turned out that the cluster was messed up - but only on the fuel gauge part, and ironically enough it resembled a sender unit problem through and through - but the sender tested 100%. Now I'm using a CX cluster and starting to miss my expletiveing tachometer.

In any event? Has this problem been happening all along? Or is this something new? You see, Honda uses this stupid *** foam float (or used, anyways) on the sender unit and managed to position it in a way that whenever your car is on the slightest inclination it'll skew your gas reading. You'll get most accurate on flat ground, if you go down hill it'll appear like you have more gas, uphill will appear like you have less gas. There's basically nothing you can do about this, even changing the gas tank won't help as the problem is in the design, not the product. You'd have to get a fuel cell or something - and that's just stupid.

If this is "abnormal" for how the accuracy has been throughout the duration of your ownership of the car, you should TEST the fuel sender unit. As I stated before you're a retard if you just go out and buy one, it's VERY easy to test - only requires a multi-meter, phillips screw driver, and a 10mm socket/ratchet.

 

syndacate is absolutely right man. don't just randomly waste money on **** like that. not when it's that easy to test.