Fill the tank with gas. The gas gauge needle jumps from full to empty until the gas tank is below empty. It has been doing this for so long till I just ignore it, but it's a pain in the butt. I bought the truck new in 10/2000, and it has been a good one with 125000 miles on it now, but the gas gauge is a real pain. Now, the radio lights have begun to function intermittently, so that is a pain in the butt, too. Radio and CD player work fine, however.
Shows "empty" right after a fill. Message board says fuel low. Shows accurate amount of fuel occasionally and message goes off. I have to keep track of mileage to know when to fill up again.
do not be fooled by dealerships telling you to replace your cluster panel for this issue though chances are u will need to anyways this vehicle is strong running but has a long list of electrical issues do not replace the cluster unless it isn't registering your mph because if its anything else on it its likely unrelated. my truck had its ecu and cluster replaced by the dealer and still had fuel gauge issues like dropping to empty while at a stop after the work was done and a short for the gear gauge which is located at the top of the transmission as well as the back light not turning on unless the dome over ride knob is rolled all the way up. now its showing a knock sensor is bad. though its had no mechanical issues and went 148k miles on the u-joints it has a long list of electrical issues. my uncle drives the same truck with the 5.6l and has many of the same issues including a cold knock which is apparently normal
I can have a full tank of gas, even after stopping at the station and knowing I just fill it up the gas gauge will register full and be fine, next time I look at the gauges the low fuel light is on and the gas hand is on empty, then it may jump back to full on its own.
Around 90,000 our Silverado fuel gauge showed 'empty' for the first 5 minutes of driving it, then it would start registering the true level. After about 1 year of this it now reads 'emtpy' with the low fuel light on approximately 95% of the time. This has led to us running out of gas 3 times in the past 3 months now that our teenage son is also driving the truck and it is more difficult to keep track of the mileage since the last fill-up. This has become a major inconvenience and humiliation. We cannot afford to fix it at this time so apparently will just have to continue living with it for now.
- Eddie G.,
Modesto, CA, US
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My fuel Guage will bounce around when in neutral, and then when driving it will sometimes go to empty and the low fuel light will come on. If I shift from drive to neutral and back to drive it will go back to normal. I think this is a common problem, I know of 2 other trucks that are doing this. The dealer wants $660 to replace the instrument cluster because they "think" that is the problem.
When the car is in park, the fuel gauge goes to "0". Then the "low fuel" indicator goes on. Then the gauge goes to full. When I put the vehicle in drive, the indicator goes to full then to its accurate level-I think.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
Fill the tank with gas. The gas gauge needle jumps from full to empty until the gas tank is below empty. It has been doing this for so long till I just ignore it, but it's a pain in the butt. I bought the truck new in 10/2000, and it has been a good one with 125000 miles on it now, but the gas gauge is a real pain. Now, the radio lights have begun to function intermittently, so that is a pain in the butt, too. Radio and CD player work fine, however.
- Larry E., Travelers Rest, SC, US