odd fuel gauge 95 neon

I just bought a 95 neon about two months ago, and have noticed that
the fuel gauge acts a little odd.
When the tank is full, the needle is over the full mark, almost
touching the stop pin. at about 30kms after filling the tank, the
needle starts to drop. At about 60kms into the tank, I can almost
watch the needle move towards the empty point. At about 100kms into
the tank, the needle is around empty.
I have taken the gauge cluster out and cleaned all the contacts and it
still does this. The tank is not empty when it reads that it is as it
only takes like $8.00CND in gas at that point. I have driven with the
gauge reading empty for over 300kms, so the car is not out of gas.
Any suggestions?

Mike
e-mail at mlawrenc(at)rcc.on.ca

 

Uh-huh.

Shell gasoline sold last year in Ontario caused big problems with fuel
systems in many makes of vehicle, but the problems were especially bad in
Chrysler products. It was due to an additive in Shell gasoline that they
have now discontinued, and one of the problems it caused was to gum up the
fuel gauge sender unit (in the tank) so that the gauge would no longer
indicate correctly. This caused people to run out of gas with the needle
still indicating full; yours sounds like the opposite problem. Shell had
(probably still has) a program for reimbursing repairs caused by their
fuel additive; I don't know if you'd qualify since you didn't own the car
when the bad gas was being sold.

But now you know where the problem is: In the gauge sender.

DS

 

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