BostonBill

The fuel gauge on my 94 LS400 (91K miles) is not working right. It only goes up about half way when I fill it up and most of the time it is below the Empty line, but will sometimes creep up slowly the longer I drive, but never more than half full and mostly hover at or below the Empty line. The low gas light does work.
Any one have any thoughts.

Thanks

Bill

damon

Bill,

Check out the Instrument cluster "sticky" above.

groove

Could possibly be the sending unit in the tank.

PVSLS400

possibly sending unit But if it is not i know a place you can just buy servo and needle that is all you need Dont have to replace whole cluster at all just gauge itself


MSRP Price Core Price Your Price
Fuel gauge - 1995-97 95-97 $374.64 $0.00 $318.44


http://www.trademotion.com/partlocat...=9&catalogid=2

damon

So let me get this straight, you did a search here & are ready to believe that the problem you are having is in the sending unit???
Wow!!! Get ready to spend a ton of money because you are clearly willing to fly in the face of empirical evidence. No less than 2 EE 's have diagnosed this problem and given a solution that has proven to work.

Did either of you read the Instrument Cluster sticky? Why do I feel like Matt Foley all of a sudden???

BTW: There is a cottage industry of people who can repair LS instrument clusters to cure this problem (check here or ebay) but nobody doing the same for sending units. Ummmm?????
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If I were a smarter man I would edit this out, but now that I see that the post that generated this response is not from Boston Bill I will leave it because I think it is funny.

BostonBill

Damon, I read the whole "sticky" and believe it is the capacitor (C-142) on the big board, as you said. I looked up the elcectrolytic caps and will get it. I'll get to my mechanic on Friday to see if this is up his alley, otherwise I will find someone else to do it.
Damon, thanks for your help, appreciate it.

Bill

PVSLS400

No didnt read sticky but my sisters 92 LS400 was doing somthing similar and the FLOAT was screwed up so i was just giving my 2 cents thats what this place is all about!

groove

Roger that. Just my 2cents here as well. I have come across un-working fuel gauges many times and have found that more often than not the fuel float and or sending unit are ready to be replaced. Just my 2 cents...

GRAND_LS 4

iTrader: (2)

Dont change your sending unit if you have a First gen, because thats not your problem. I had a problem with mine (98) and it was the sending unit... but its cheaper to change the sending unit... it was $60 bucs, and 10mins of careful work.

LexLS

Bill, I'm glad you read the sticky you found your answer. Replace that one cap and you're back to new. Of course it could be the float, sending unit, needle, etc....but why not try a $0.10 cap first? In first gens 93-94 the most likely cause of a bad fuel gauge (not showing full after a fill up) is C-142. On 90-92's it's a different cap, but it's still just one cap. Let us know if it works.

jcolegrove

no one can figure out which cap to replace on the 92's....
they are completely different designs, etc. as has been pointed out by lexls and others. per mr whizard, who fixes many clusters, they are more robust and completely different.

FLIPMOE

I'm with this guy, I have the same problem on my 94, we're talking about blackout on the cluster, the fuel gauge is not working, and all i did is replace two capacitors and that's it. its been almost a year now with no sign of problems.

dfkd

Where would one be able to find the C142 cap? Seems near impossible to find one in one of the common places (radioshack etc).