Bought a new 2011 Dakota and right from the get go have had a problem with the fuel gauge. Once it gets to 1/2 then it slowly goes all the way to emty and the fuel light comes on. Fill the tank then all is well till it again goes to 1/2. Had it back to the dealer twice and they replaced the sending unit in tank (no Help) then they ran a new wire from tank to gauge (no help) any ideas? as they say they, Dodge has not hand any issues with what I'm experiencing which I know is crap. So any help you can provide will be appreciated. Thanks Later RJD

 

Do you have the overhead console? If so does the Distance to Empty on that also go to 0 when the fuel gauge does or does it continue to stay accurate?

 

Altair: I do not have the over head console so no other gauge. Later RJD

 

At this point I might suspect the gauge cluster. Either way you're still under warranty so as annoying as it is to keep bringing the truck in don't let the dealer get away with not fixing it. They have the responsibility to make it right, in some states if you bring it in multiple times for the same issue and they do not fix it you can actually force them to buy it back under lemon laws but I would reserve any mention or thought of that for if they refuse cooperate and start blowing you off.

 

Altair is correct. Take it in, make them give you a loaner and tell them to call you when its fixed.

 

Thanks guys. To date the dealer has been working with me on the issues. They had the truck for a week the last time and did provide us with a loaner. We do have the lemon law here but I will use this as a last resort. It seems like it could be an intermittent open circuit but where.

I stopped by the dealer this am and informed that the fuel gauge had malfunctioned again over the weekend. We had just pick the truck up from the Dodge dealer Sat after the last fix. My mistake was that I had to put gas in the truck as Yesterday had to make a 75 mile run and I did not know how much gas was in the truck. The needle was on emty as it had malfunctioned again. I added 2.6 gals and then the needle moved to just above 1/2. We have decided that the best thing to do is the next time the needle suddenly drops to emty is to immediately return to dealer. Later RJD

 

sounds to me like the in tank sensor (pita to change cause you have to empty the tank 1st then drop it, hence the wire replacement) ...does the idiot light come on (orange need fuel light)

if you have a cortex you can display the data value from that sensor and if it is reading 0% you prob need a sender...if it has a value i would look into the cluster

 

Thanks Reagor for the info. yes the orange fuel tank light comes on and beeps. Do not have access to cortex so it's up to the dealer to do. Still waiting on them to see if they change the gauge cluster out. We had another failure this week end but when I restarted the truck then the guage went back to normal. Just can not get the truck to the dealer when it acts up. Later RJD

 

You may end up having a factory technician sent in. The dealership techs follow the Factory Service Manual (FSM) procedures. The factory techs have a higher skill level and specialized troubleshooting equipment. Unfortunately until the dealer exhausts the FSM procedures, the factory tech will not be called in. The factory techs are very well versed in wiring problems. I'm not a auto tech, but spent 24 of my 28 years in the Air Force working on aircraft avionics, and am quite familiar with wiring nightmares. "Usually" open circuits are the culprit in problems like this, as you mentioned. The trick is finding where. With modern data bus wiring systems the physical location of the open may not be in the obvious places. The worst problems are intermittent failures; very frustrating for the customer and technician.

 

def sounds like the signal is dropping to the "empty" level whatever that is
(0v or 5v) they replaced the wire already so it sounds like something in the tank &or a ground floating....it all depends on how the circuit is designed and our trucks use a sws system....goto a differant dealer with a larger service area...might have higher certified dodge tech's

again i'm no professional but i have electrocuted my self once or twice