Question[I did check all the previous questions first. =) ] One day I was driving. Fuel gauge said I had about 3/8 of a tank of gas left. Also, electronic readout (above the mirror) said I could drive 105 more miles. I ran out of gas! My mechanic (very reliable usually) replaced the fuel pump. Another few weeks, same exact thing happened. Thinking we may have gotten a bad fuel pump, he replaced it again, also taking care to be sure the float was placed in correctly. Again, it happened. He said there was only one more part to the fuel system, the fuel gauge itself, so we replaced it. AGAIN, I ran out of gas. HELP! What else could possibly be causing this problem, which seems to have developed out of nowhere. By the way, the car has 126,000 miles. And, I sincerely appreciate any help you can give me.
AnswerHi Margie,
I would first ask are sure that the reason the engine stopped was because you "ran out of gas"? Did you actually verify in some manner, for example by filling the tank at that point all the way up and did it take the full capacity of the tank to fill it to the filler neck? If not, then how did you conclude that you 'ran out of gas'? There are many reasons that the engine stops running.
There are some resistance values for the float level unit that can be measured to see if that agrees with the specs, and also a resistance value measurement for the gauge unit. I will be getting a '94 LHS shop manual shortly that gives me those values and I will pass them along to you when it arrives. But because you replaced both the float unit and the gauge unit, I would suspect that is not your problem.
Just in case that there might be another problem than running out of gas, why not check the engine controller for the presence of any logged fault codes. It is possible for you to ask the engine controller whether it has observed any failures in the control systems that are stored as codes in its memory. The most useful thing to do would be to try to get the fault codes that may stored in the engine controller memory to readout. Try using the ignition key: turn it "on-off-on-off-on" and leave it "on" (doing this quickly, no longer than 5 seconds). By "on" I mean just the normal position when the engine is running, not the cranking position. The 'check engine'light will remain on when you leave the key in the "on" position with the engine still not running. But then watch the 'check engine' light to begin flashing, then pause, flashing, pause, etc. Count the number of flashes before each pause and keep track of the numbers. Repeat the readout and verify the counts are correct. Then group them in pairs in the order that they came out, thus forming two digit numbers. You may notice that the pause is shorter between the digits of a given number, and longer between the numbers themselves. Then send me a 'follow-up' question telling me the results of your readout. By the way, 55 will be the last number (two groups of 5 flashes each) and that is the code for "end of readout".
I have the troubleshooting manual for several engines and we can look up the possibilities of what is wrong based upon what fault codes you show. When you write back tell me what engine is in Chrysler you are driving.
There is also an essay on fault codes at the site:
http://www.allpar.com/fix/codes.html
which gives the meaning of the code numbers. But then you need to get specific info for what exactly might be the diagnostic tests or parts to replace to complete the repair.
So those are some ideas for you to consider. Let me know what happens and how I might be of help.
Roland
