Strange petrol gauge behaviour!

[DastardlyDick]

My petrol gauge (which has been fairly accurate until now) has started to have a mind of its own. During a journey it will go from half full to nearly empty for no apparent reason (ie not going around a bend or up or down a hill) and will sometimes completely die and then come back to life equally randomly. I have just turned the ignition on to check it is working and even without the engine running it still moves around a little bit - if I turn the engine on it seems to move around a fair bit more. Any suggestions would be most welcome. The car is a 96 4.0 HC.

Thanks Richard

[StarmistBlue400]

Could be another case of 'they all do that'

Mine moves around, not quite as much as yours but will often show empty then jump up a bit

[s p a c e m a n]

The wires for the sender are on the top right hand side of the tank, pull the bit of carpet off of the top of the tank and give them a wiggle whilst watching the gauge..

[DastardlyDick]

Wires wiggled and gauge stays constant at one quarter so electrical connection to sender appears to be OK. Perhaps fit new sender unit - they don't seem to cost too much?

[s p a c e m a n]

Because it's doing it with just the ignition on the car not moving I would be guessing at wiring rather than the sender unit, just pointed you to the tank first as it's now summer so you could have nudged it putting the roof in the boot Poor earths effect the gauges quite badly, any of the other gauges acting a bit weird or being a bit out? You need someone who's played this game before, sure someone will be along soon, think there's earth points under the dash somewhere..

[DastardlyDick]

All other gauges working fine.