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Vibrating Gas needle

dhangebr

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dhangebr New Member

dhangebr

Posted
Posted

My gas gauge has started vibrating between tic marks. Looks blurry. I believe the average position of the needle is accurate although it also hunts up and down the gauge a little bit. This started happening after my battery died. When I replaced the battery the problem now existed. The fuel pump/sending unit is only 6 months or so old. The alternator has been checked out and is ok. Any idea whats going on here. I have seen several other individuals with the exact same problem but no one nows the solution. Tahoes seem suseptible to this as well. Thanks. My suspicion is that something didnt like the low voltage. gauge? computer? sending unit?

 

Dan

GMCTech Enthusiast

GMCTech

Posted
Posted

You'll need to find out if the voltage fluctuation is being sent to the gauge, or if the gauge is doing the fluctuation with steady voltage to it. Unfortunately you probably will only be able to do this with a scan tool.

 

Does it do it in Drive? If so, I think you'll find it is a bad gauge (instrument panel) because the signal is buffered out of park and neutral.

 

The dealership also may have updated software, but I'm not aware of any for gauge vibration.

 

Hope this helps.

typicalsituations Enthusiast

typicalsituations

Posted
Posted

I have the SAME problem. I can't find ANY info on it. it started doing this 3 days after I bought the Tahoe... with 78K miles. Its annoying, but its acurate. I bought an OBDII scanner from Wal Mart and I had some code that had to do with emissions. I wonder if you have that same code? Is your SES light on???

dhangebr New Member

dhangebr

Posted
  • Author
Posted

The SES light was coming on about a month ago with an emission code 042 or 442. Cant remember now however it was an emmision code and the fix was a new gas cap. The old one seemed fine but I guess the o-ring had shrunk over the years and no longer sealed tight enough. put on a new gas cap (autozone) and light went out before the next tank fillup or shortly thereafter. It takes it a little while to decide the problem is fixed.

 

On the gauge thing mine I think was caused by the battery going dead and me trying to get it started with jumper cables i guess. Anywho mine seems to be accurate as well or at least consistant in its movement downward. Im not to the bottom of the tank yet so Im not positive its accurate. It tends to wander/jump around more when it is in park. Also it tends to peg out sometimes right as I turn the key to start the truck.

typicalsituations Enthusiast

typicalsituations

Posted
Posted

Well, looks like we have the same EXACT problem. My guage goes all the way past "F" when you turn on thekey then is jumps back to where it should be. And mine jiggles more in park than Drive. The code I'm pulling is P0452 "Evaporative Emission control system pressure sensor Low Input". I've tried 3 different gas caps two STOCK and one LOCKING. I still get the code after erasing it. Perhaps that isn't MY problem. As for the fuel guage, I've never jumped off my Tahoe. And it started this the FIRST time I filled it to the brim. When I bought it it was empty... thats alot Ross Motors for giving me an EMPTY car! :thumbs: Well, maybe one day someone will figure it out.

dsrour Enthusiast

dsrour

Posted
Posted

I had same problem on 98 Sub. It was th guage itself. If youve looked at a cluster

w/ gauge faces off the all the gauges are driven by coils. These apparently go bad and cause errratic readings and blurriness. They are not available individually as far as I know, but can easily be replaced if you have donor cluster

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