Gas Gauge: Terribly Inaccurate

[Newlin]

I've been filling up my tank when it hits 3/4 full recently and the last few days I've been letting it go down to the quarter mark. Anyway it usually takes about 4 gallons to take it from 3/4 to full but the middle half just seemed to drop dramatically. So when I hit a 1/4 tank today I filled her up and it only took a touch over 8 gallons. I've always been under the impression that the tank was 14.1 gallons so is the sensor going bad or is the gauge in the Alero that bad?

[a.graham52]

kinda sounds right to me. when my gas light starts to come on and off depending on how the car sits, i have about 5 gallons left (using my altraguage) and as far as i knew it was a 15 gallon tank. oh and on a regular basis the first 1/4 usualy takes only 3 gallons in my car. give or take of course.

[03glgold]

some time when you go on a long trip watch how the fuel gauge moves...there are spots that hold more and spots that hold less...that being said you fuel light should be at 2 gallons to empty (12.1 gallons from the light to full)...that is what it say in my owners manual and it is pretty much dead on at least with mine and my fuel pump was replaced in april and matches how my old pump read so the sensor in mine is fine

I don't know if it varied at all by year...the middle half of the tank drops faster on mine as well

[Redog]

My fuel light has been coming on between 11.8 and 12.1 gallons of empty tank. One time I was pulling into the gas station and the light came on

Alero gas tank is 14.3 gallons or 54 liters, pending on which side of the border you live

[Lucion01]

I always thought the Alero tank was just a 12 gallon by the way it filled up. I used to have a car with a 12 gallon exact tank, and it takes about the same amount of money to fill up both cars. So I just figured it was a 12 on the Alero.

However, I started to notice that I could throw 12-14 gallons in the Alero when going from the gas light to full depending on how long I let the gas light go.

I do notice that the gauge moves faster at some points. I pretty religiously watch my gas gauge. Gas = money, so I keep pretty good track of it on my daily drive. I can look down at the gauge, see what it reads and look up for 5 minutes... look back down it hasn't moved. I can look down about 1 minute later and sure enough that bitch has moved.

[a.graham52]

Originally Posted by Redog

My fuel light has been coming on between 11.8 and 12.1 gallons of empty tank. One time I was pulling into the gas station and the light came on

Alero gas tank is 14.3 gallons or 54 liters, pending on which side of the border you live

How did u determin it was 14.3? Jw

[sleepyalero]

yeah the alero gas tank is i believe a 13.3 or 13.4 gallon tank.

1/4 tank is E for me. dont like to run it under a 1/4 tank.

[a.graham52]

i guess this is where im thinking differently:

[sleepyalero]

hmm ive got sites from google telling me 14.1 gallons... i believe i looked it up a long time ago on google too and it told me 13.4 ish. very interesting.

[03glgold]

it varies by the year of the car...the 1999 has a 15 in the book, 2000 and 2001 is 14.3, 2002-2004 14.1...that is why there are differences in what we figure and even more reason why saying miles per tank is a bad way to tell us how your car is doing on fuel consumption I guess...I got everything except the 03 information out of the pdf manuals on the oldsmobile site, for 03 i used my print manual

[RalphP]

Something to consider - the float is on a pivot. It may not swing the sensor uniformly as it floats down (MOST pivoting floats don't without a LOT of work on the sensor array). And let's face it, the MAJOR thing is "Do I have gas or not?" not "Do I have 12.198373 or 12.192317 gallons of gas?" The FORMER is good enough for most people, almost nobody needs the latter *grins*

RwP

[03glgold]

also a poorly running alero should still be getting around 20mpg, so when the light comes on depending on which light you have I will use mine a 2 gallons to empty, I am sure that is the lowest they go, you still have around 40 miles to get to a station before you are stuck

[a.graham52]

Originally Posted by 03glgold

it varies by the year of the car...the 1999 has a 15 in the book, 2000 and 2001 is 14.3, 2002-2004 14.1...that is why there are differences in what we figure and even more reason why saying miles per tank is a bad way to tell us how your car is doing on fuel consumption I guess...I got everything except the 03 information out of the pdf manuals on the oldsmobile site, for 03 i used my print manual

just confirmed the numbers. looked up all the years in GMsi. all appears correct. learn something new everyday.

[sleepyalero]

Originally Posted by a.graham52

just confirmed the numbers. looked up all the years in GMsi. all appears correct. learn something new everyday.

thats the joy of the automotive world.

[Newlin]

I had always assumed all the years had the same tank capacity.

[a.graham52]

Originally Posted by Newlin

I had always assumed all the years had the same tank capacity.

same here.