None of the above. I believe that the fuel gauge has a viscous oil inside that slows the movement of the needle. If the oil has leaked out, the needle will move more freely. When you turn the ignition on, does the fuel gauge needle rise more rapidly than normal and when you turn it off, does it drop more rapidly? If so, the gauge is probably shot.
Ray, the gauge doesn't rise because it doesn't sink in the first place when the ignition is shut off. It remains at "reading level", and per the manual, that's normal.
Toyota uses 2 types of fuel gauges - some drop to empty when the ignition is off and some maintain the current reading. In either case, the gauge uses the fluid to dampen the movement of the needle.
I'm thinking there's a Ford in my future. This truck is too young for this kind of bullshit.
Nummi's quality must be going downhill. It's difficult to believe that a truck that is only 8 years old needs a repair. Anecdotally, I had to replace an instrument panel bulb in my son's '05 Tacoma last year, and it took me almost 15 minutes to take out the instrument cluster, replace the bulbs, and put it back together again. As further evidence of Toyota's declining quality, 2 bulbs went out on my wife's '03 Sequoia and it took me over 20 minutes to replace the bulb behind the "D" on the transmission shift indicator in the instrument cluster and one of the bulbs for the Homelink buttons on the overhead. I've never had to replace instrument panel bulbs in the 50 or 60 Toyotas I've driven over the years.
Alas, the low oil pressure warning light is illuminated on my other son's '06 Focus and I have already spent over a half hour diagnosing it without turning off the light. The good news is that the oil pressure is good, the bad news is that I'll have to find the short to ground in the wiring between the switch and light, which will probably take more than another half hour.
Maybe goblins in the neighborhood are messing with instrument panel lights...
The point, Ray, is not that all cars don't break over time. The point is that cars should not have STUPID shit breaking when they're still young cars.
It drives me nuts to have stupid stuff break on new cars, but that doesn't drive me as nuts as having really expensive stuff break on new or old cars, especially when I was a district service manager because I'd have to listen to the whole story whether or not I was inclined to help.
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