99 Silvys Gas Gauge Is Retarded

[99silverado1500]

On my 99 Silvy, the gas gauge is pretty screwed up. I know you all are going to say sending unit sensor or whatever. Dont feel like pulling the tank till the pump goes. When I turn my truck off, I can watch it slowly climb to one-two incriments before 1/4 tank mark. My gauge also will bounce about 1/4 inch or so while driving. I never truely can depend on my gas gauge. Im sure im not the only one with a problem though. Any insight?

[-Devil-]

can't offer any insight here .. my step-fathers 00 silverado .. has a messed up gas guage as well ... he has replaced the sending unit and such already ... only other option is guage cluster .. (but to me it seems like a shorted wire or bad connection) ... sometimes it will read right, then suddnely just bottom out .. and stay that way for a few days .. with low fuel lite and all ... then go back to normal...

[99silverado1500]

I was thinking of spending the money for a DIC or a ScanGauge 2 which would tell MPG, but I guess it only goes by the gauge basically as well, so I guess im just kicking myself in the head no matter what I do. Nobody can make a gas gauge though, my 96 F250 I had before my Silverado, that had a horrible gas gauge, it worked in reverse lol, Id fill up and it would show almost empty, but when it was empty it show almost full, and in between it bounce all over the place.

[jason2006]

Have you tried a couple of bottles of Chevron Techron cleaner? It could be sulfur deposits have formed on your fuel tank float and could be causing the problem. It did it to my mom's 05 Explorer and 2 bottles of it fixed it.

[COMB2]

My old 98 express work van did the same thing. They changed the fuel filter and pump and it work fine after that

[gccoley]

Mine does the same thing also. I just fill mine up and set the trip odometer and roll 400 miles and then fill er up again and reset the trip odometer every time, been working for me 4 years now.

[99silverado1500]

Right now, its saying that I go 290-310 miles on a tank, according to my trip meter. But when I fill up its anywhere between 16-18 gallons to put in, so im guessing I can go by that 400 estimate too? How do you drive? I drive like i stole it some days, and some days i drive like grandpa bill, so that might be part of why my gas gauge moves so fast.

[gccoley]

I drive mine the same way,sometimes I might be showing a half tank and run 50 miles and the needle never moves and I am like d@#$ this thing is getting great mileage. Then shut it off and when I start it back up the darn needle has jumped from a 1/2 to a 1/4. Just have to live with it. Alot of times I will go about 380 miles and then fill er up just for piece of mind. All my Buds that have these model Silverado's have the similar problem. At least our needle doesn't jump from empty to full every 30 seconds and the low fuel light comes off and on.

[99silverado1500]

So I should really be getting more than 300 out of a tank, more like 400. I will do a complete fill up tommorow, and run 400 miles and then fill up again and see how many gallons it took.

[gccoley]

You might try working your way up to 400 miles and keep checking eveytime you fill up. Don't want you to take my word and have you run out of fuel just because my truck will do it. All these truck run a little different.

[-Devil-]

on my step fathers .. he fills up at 410 miles ... not sure how much it holds .. but it is about 45 to 50$ on avg from what he says ...

[99silverado1500]

I have a 26 gallon, and on a complete fillup at the current prices around me its 65 bucks

[gccoley]

26 here also, Man I hate when pull up to those things. Good luck and keep us posted.

[saltwater_addict]

mine does the same thing, but only right after you fill it up, once on the highway it steadys out and is as accurate as when new. i only go about 300 so that i can keep the pump cool.

[99silverado1500]

i think my pump should have had enough the past 20 thousand miles, because i only had like 16 gallon-18 gallon fillups, so theres at least a quarter tank laying in there.