I bought an 00 Impala 2 days ago and quickly figured out the gas gauge is not working right. It has the needle gauge as well as the digital one above the rear view mirror that shows mpg your getting, gallons used ect.

Anyhow, when we bought it the gauge was on full we thought "sweet we got a full tank of gas" Well yesterday my boyfriend was out driving in it and he said out of nowhere the gas light came on and the needle gauge plunged to E. He put his last few bucks he had on him in the tank and the needle shot back up to Full. When he came back I drove it to the store just a few miles away and it was still reading full. When I got back out to it, I started it up and the gas light came on and the needle plunged to E again. Well I parked it and shut it off And then restarted it, the gas gauge read full again.... although I had no yet put gas in it. I went ahead and put a few dollars in to be on the safe side. And up to full again it went....

Has anyone had their car do this, what could be the possible cause? Thanks

 

Hello there,

The only thing I can suggest is that it could be the sending unit that is located where the spare tire is. If you do a search on google, it will even show you how to see where the sending unit is located.

Usually the sending unit is pretty much like the floater in the gas tank. I'm not certain if you change the sending unit that the gauge might work, but it's worth checking it yourself and save yourself some troubleshooting time with mechanics who will charge you for checking something simple.

If it's a floater problem, you can bet it might be costly.

Good luck! Get the hanes book for Impala repairs!

Vendetta70