'98 Ram 1500 6 cylinder. According to my gauge I get about 300 miles on the first half tank. Then it only takes about 170 miles to completely empty the tank, theoretically. Have any of you noticed the same thing? My other vehicle which is an import does not do this. Here's what I'm wondering. Did Chrysler design the gauge to be misleading? Were they counting on their potential customers being wowed at how little the needle moved after a long test drive starting with a full tank? Did they think there customers were that stupid?If they really did spend time and effort engineering this out-of-proportion gauge instead of spending those resources on something else, like say, hmmmmm I don't know, maybe an engine that doesn't PING, then my opinion of domestic auto makers is going to go from bad to worse.

Your comments would be welcome, however what I really would like to know issome specifics. Does the float inside the tank have one of those tiny-wire variable resistor type thingamabobs and if so are the wires spaced farther apart at one end than the other? Oris there something else that they could have manipulated that you know of?

 

I've noticed my tank goes down slower when its over a half a tank.. but I have always just thought it was in my head. Oh well.

 

+1

 

Same here

 

The gauge does not indicate evenly over the range
and there is more gallons
from a little above F to 1/2
but you also need to factor in that
Chrysler leaves about 5 gallons bellow E
as a 'liquid cooling pool'
to keep the submerged electric fuel pump from overheating.

it is also very common for sulfur in 'bad' gasoline
to foul the electrical resistor pad metal
that Chrysler uses in the fuel level sensor

old post
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The Chrysler fuel tank sensors are very sensitive to sulfur in the gasoline,
and go 'wild' when affected this way.

http://web.archive.org/web/200408132...4/bad_fuel.txt

The gas gauge needle will begin wandering around and not show the correct level.

A few years ago Shell gasoline used a new "Bronze" additive that caused Chrysler fuel tank sensors to malfunction too.

http://web.archive.org/web/200206110...er/3378552.htm

In many cases this can be repaired by using 3-4 bottles of Chevron Techron "Plus" fuel injector cleaner over 4 tanks, but in the worse cases the sendor has to be replaced.

The higher sulfur content of diesel fuel in the USA causes most mid 1990s Cummins Ram fuel gauges to malfunction sooner or later too. It is very common.

If your MPG is really bad
the most likely parts to suspect first are the front oxygen sensors,
and the second most likely are stuck open fuel injectors.
High sulfur in fuel can also 'poison' O2 sensors.

 

No new car is ever gonna have a full tank of gas in it for a test drive. Atleast at the dealership i work at, all the new cars arrive with about 1/8 of a tank. Then we put in a max of like $12 if the gas gets extremely low. The only time it would be filled up is if the customer worked that into part of their deal. And most of the time that entails the dealership giving them a gas card instead of filling it up for them.

I've noticed the same thing in my truck. I just figured the gauge is set with a little play in it. So >1/2 tank gravity pulls the needle towards full and <1/2 tank gravity pulls it to empty.

 

Thnks for the responses. I am trying to figure out how to quote a passage from some of your posts. Can someone explain how to quote in a post?

 

[ quote ] what you wanna quote [ / quote ]

without the spaces that's just so it shows up not as a quote

 

you can 'adjust' your gas gauge needle
with an appropriate electrical resistor in the wires

When full the tank sender should read 20 ohms plus/minus 6 ohms.

When empty the tank sender should read 220 ohms plus/minus 6 ohms

 

I've noticed the first 1/4 tank decreases a lot slower than the remaining 3/4. Oh well. I won't lose any sleep over it.