Fuel Gauge Problem

Your sending unit in the tank is bad. I drive one of my ford trucks by mileage on the trip meter, because I don't want to drop $170 x 2 for the parts only at the Ford dealer....

My 2002 Explorer XLT fuel gauge sticks periodically. It is not in a particular spot. Sometimes after a fillup, it will stay at full for days. Other times in the middle. And other times near MT, even for a couple of days after fillup. I heard that the cost of repair was rather steep, so we just hit the trip reset after every fillup, just in case.

I vaguely recall a TSB or recall for high sulphur content in gasoline hurting sending units. Our Ford tech website is down for it's weekly housekeeping so I can't say for sure. Bear in mind that, on some models, refuelling with the motor running can "cook your nines" (apologies to Steve Martin in "The Man With Two Brains").... aside from the fact that it is foolish anyway.

Your local dealer can run OASIS (using the correct symptom code) to see if your car is amongst the affected units.

Correct - the sulfur corrodes the silver contacts in the fuel tank. Sometime in the past year, there was a major gas recall in the southeast because a refinery was producing gasoline with a sulfur level that was way too high, and it was ruining fuel gauges.

-Kevin

Thanks to everyone for the info. Short of letting the thing run out of gas (which I am sure is not a good thing, notr is it something I would like to do) how can I tell how much fuel my fuel tank holds? It is a '99 Sport.

Thanks...I'll have them check it out.