Out of gas…not!
 

I just got finished changing the viscous coupling on my '98 5.9 Liter. Did a complete tranny flush/fluid replacement while I was under there.

Drove it about 20 miles & all was well. Parked it a couple hours, re-started it, and suddenly the gas gauge said it was empty. Same on the trip computer: zero miles to empty. But it had over 3/4 of a tank before I turned it off!

I also soldered the wire to the rear O2 sensor. One of the wire anchors had gotten loose, allowing the wire to drift into the driveshaft, which handily wore 2 wires in two. So I soldered it back together. I don't have any idea what that might have to do with the gas gauge, but I figured I'd report it anyway. Another curiosity is that the Jeep was setting a code for the bad rear O2 sensor. The check engine light didn't go off for those first 20 miles, but once I re-started the truck, it was gone. But when I hooked up a BlueDriver scanner, it said the code was still active. I tried to erase the code, but it wouldn't go away. And the whole time the CEL light was now off.

Whew!

Suggestions?

Thomas

Where did you park it? Could be someone stole your gas!

A cordless drill works great on plastic fuel tanks. There was a rash of gas thefts in my area. The a-holes would drill a hole in the tank and get what they could hold and the leave the rest on the ground. The vehicle owner wouldn't know the tank was drilled until they started putting gas in the tank.

No, it wasn't emptied by thieves. The next day the gas gauge was back to working & has been for several drives since. Puzzling.