Good day all! I'm posting this for my father. He has an 03 Dakota. I think about 65K. At, pretty much consistently after a fill up, 125 miles his gas gauge drops to empty, audible chime, and check engine light come on. When you stop and restart all may reset or only the check engine light stays on. Any thoughts? If more info needed let me know.

Thanks

Golferguy

 

It could be something with the sending unit. Next time tell ur dad when the check engine light comes on to either get the code checked or have him turn the key to the on position 3 times and on the 3rd time a code will come up in the odo.

 

Thanks for the response. Does he have to turn the key in a certain amount of seconds?

 

As long as the light is on the key thing will work I turn mine to the on then as soon as my odo shows up I turn if off and do that 2 more times. It will show the code then if there is no more codes done will appear.

 

We did as you suggested and we came up with a code of P0463. Pretty cool that you don't have to run down to Auto Zone to have the code read. Any ideas on what that is or can you direct me to a website with error codes?
Thanks again.

Golferguy

 

i got the same problem with mine actually cant believe i missed this thread. there is a list of codes on the top of the 2nd gen dak section page, faq. but for that code i got two answers

P0463 Fuel Level Sending Unit Volts Too High Fuel level sensor above acceptable voltage.
P0463 (M) Fuel Level Sending Unit Volts Too High Circuit shorted to voltage between PCM and fuel guage sending unit.

sorry i can't help more but mine wasn't showing any codes. thanks i know what it is now.

 

Sending units going out the the Dak's is pretty common. The contacts build up carbon deposits and the gauge reads flaky like your Dad's truck does. The used to be a post floating around about a guy that dropped the tank, pulled out the pump/filter/sending unit, took the sending unit apart and cleaned the contact with an eraser. That's a lot of work to get the gauge to work again, but it's free. I pulled the bed off when I had to replace the fuel pump, and I would recommend to go that route if you have help moving the bed. The pump is really easy to get out at that point.