Ran out of fuel, says 3/4 full...


daytrayd

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Apr 23, 2010
557
Austin, TX
I was driving down the highway yesterday, all going well. Did a turn around, and a doughnut on a side abandoned road, then the car would die under acceleration. I crawled back down the highway for 1 mile, ran fine with 1/4 throttle, then finally gave out completely 100 ft from a parking lot. I thought i threw the inertia switch, but it was fine. Towed it to shop and said I’m out of gas. But the gauge showed 3/4 full! Anyone know what’s up? The fuel was probably a year old so maybe it gummed up the sender. Any thoughts?
 

junior

GT Owner
Mar 9, 2007
1,151
So Cal
Did you "treat" the fuel while not used with STA-BIL or something similar? Most likely suspect otherwise.
 

SteveA

GT Owner/B.O.D
Mark IV Lifetime
Dec 13, 2005
3,694
Sandpoint Id
I've lost 2 fuel gauges and both died showing I had plenty of fuel. My guess would be your gauge is toast.
 

fjpikul

GT Owner
Mark IV Lifetime
Le Mans 2010 Supporter
Jan 4, 2006
11,475
Belleville, IL
Gauge gone bad. The sensor is ultrasonic and does not go bad.
 

texas mongrel

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
May 3, 2009
1,661
Houston Texas
Once in a blue moon my fuel gauge sticks at around 3/4 full. It typically goes away on the next fill-up, but I’ve learned to reset the trip odometer every time so I can track mileage - when I hit 200, time for a refill
 

twobjshelbys

GT Owner
Jul 26, 2010
6,053
Las Vegas, NV
Does the gauge return to zero when you turn off the ignition and then go back to 3/4 when on? Or is it just stuck at 3/4?
 

PeteK

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Apr 18, 2014
2,267
Kalama, Free part of WA State
Goes to zero when you turn it off.
 

daytrayd

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Apr 23, 2010
557
Austin, TX
Dead gauge, you guys called it. Volt gauge had been dead for 6 months, so finally getting those swapped. The new ford OEM's fix the original problem? I know autometer had a thread to order, I spoke with them but never got that volt meter ordered.
 

twobjshelbys

GT Owner
Jul 26, 2010
6,053
Las Vegas, NV
Dead gauge, you guys called it. Volt gauge had been dead for 6 months, so finally getting those swapped. The new ford OEM's fix the original problem? I know autometer had a thread to order, I spoke with them but never got that volt meter ordered.

The Ford parts will fail with the same frequency. Get the replacements directly from Autometer.
 

2112

Blue/white 06'
Mark II Lifetime
The Ford parts will fail with the same frequency. Get the replacements directly from Autometer.

And they are significantly less expensive from Autometer.
 

twobjshelbys

GT Owner
Jul 26, 2010
6,053
Las Vegas, NV
And they are significantly less expensive from Autometer.

The Autometer gauges look just like the originals but won't fail. Unfortunately they don't make the two big gauges (speedo, tach).
 

ericromanoff

New member
Jul 20, 2016
3
We're having a similar issue with a 2005 GT. Reading 3/4 when completely full. As you run through fuel it drops accordingly. Replaced the gauge and it still does exactly the same thing. Anyone ever run across this? I'm trying to find the sonar fuel level sending unit (even as they never go bad) but cannot find one anywhere. Any Ideas?
 

rnkma4

GT Owner
Jun 9, 2014
71
Santa Clarita
The Autometer small gauges run around $225-$245 if I recall. Much cheaper than OEM
 

GT101

*UK Support*
Supporting Vendor
Jan 20, 2010
380
Colchester, Essex, UK
We had a car recently that we sold with only 100 miles on - consequently it had never had the tank filled. When full it would only read 3/4 full. Long story short it transpired that one of the breather hoses hadn’t been connected inside the tank. When the loose end of the hose was submerged in fuel it stopped the air in the rear end of the tank being forced out so it was impossible to actually fill the tank. Very confusing and took us quite a while to diagnose.

We suspected the sender but it was absolutely right. The sender is a sonic device - no moving parts just a flat metal disc - like a big ultrasonic alarm sensor. We’ve never seen one fail.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Ed Sims

GT Owner
Mark IV Lifetime
Apr 7, 2006
7,850
NorCal
I like the Speedhut gauges. They don't fail.

Ed