i have a 98 sport and i was wandering whats going on with my fuel guage when i sit at a red light it will go to empty then go back to where it was and it even does this while im driving. is this a sensor failure?

 

Sounds like the floating arm isn't sitting correctly on the assembly. It has whats basically a cork on the end, that rises and falls with the fuel level, and a tiny arm off of that that rubs on a scale, and thats what gives the guage it's reading. If it's doing it's own thing, chances are the arm is cocked or has come loose, thus just dangling and just randomly brushing up on the scale, giving you the reading jumping around.

I've had one fall completely off, while parked, on my 97 xj.

Hope that helps.

 

thanks man. i was just wanting to know what was causing it. yea that gets it

 

Im having the same issue but only when i have a 1/4 less of fuel in there.. I kinda have it stuck in my head that when this happens just be light on the throttle and hope i dont run out.. its done it for the past two days, but then again im to hard headed to just fill her up.. I cant count how many times ive ran out of gas becuase of that.. Not yet it the jeep but other cars yes.. I push things to the limit, then get stranded..

Ive also heard that when full theres a gargling sound coming from the tank... Forgot what it was but i think it had something to do with the tank pressure and breather..

x2 what he said^^^ though it could be slipping off or something.. Not the case with mine i just put a new one in..

 

i havent ran out yet either and when the gas light come on i kinda feather the gas but i rode with the light on for about 25 miles and filled it up with onli 17 gallons and i was thinkin it was like my tj with a 16 gallon tank haha

 

On my 88 Cherokee how hard is it to fix gas gauge to read correctly? I guess I need to know how to replace whatever is causing it to show the wrong level on dash.

 

If it is working but not accurate I would use the manual to look up where the electrical grounds are in the instrument cluster and dash area and take them apart and wire brush them clean.

If it is just not working I would expect a wiring problem between the gauge and the tank, or the in tank level sender.

 

I don't have any manuals for it, I also don't have the knowledge to do electrical work on this jeep. It does work, sorta lol. When gauge is showing it has a 1/4 tank it's pretty much out of gas. I was wondering if I can have a separate gauge mounted in cab just for the fuel level and have it wired to new gauge?

 

You can get the manual online as a pdf. You don't need any magical knowledge or training to work on your car, just the desire to fix it, the desire to listen and learn, and being on here where lots of people can help. I'm new enough to Jeep that I can't tell you exactly where to look for the connectors that need cleaning, but it is likely that if you unscrew it and wire brush it and screw it back together it will start working correctly.

 

 

Funny. Just came in from a spin to the tire store and my XJ is doing exactly what the OP had, 11 years ago. Ghost rising.

 

hi cruiser54,
Is this on the dash on back of cluster?

 

if it's getting stuck inside the fuel tank I'm thinking it's the float. Also till I got my Cherokee I've never seen the float/pump where it goes inside the fuel tank on the side of the tank up towards the top. It had me confused and wondering how it doesn't leak if tank is full. Also my jeep has a thing inside the fill neck to prevent being able to put a siphon hose in tank to drain it which makes that more of a issue to empty tank to pull float assembly out of it without loosing gas.

 

if it's getting stuck inside the fuel tank I'm thinking it's the float. Also till I got my Cherokee I've never seen the float/pump where it goes inside the fuel tank on the side of the tank up towards the top. It had me confused and wondering how it doesn't leak if tank is full. Also my jeep has a thing inside the fill neck to prevent being able to put a siphon hose in tank to drain it which makes that more of a issue to empty tank to pull float assembly out of it without loosing gas.