Instrument Pod

Fuel Gauge Calibration, for 89 and newer

Fuel Gauge Calibration, for 89 and newer

My Owner's manual says that the tank holds somewhere north of 23 gallons. With the needle on empty, I can get a little more than 20 gallons in there. Being the brilliant phd engineer that I am, I figured that I could run it to the empty mark, throw in a few more miles to be sure, then do the gauge calibration routine described in the manual.

So, it's 11:30pm, and the dr is tooling south on I-5 through deepest darkest Los Angeles on his way home from a conference dinner. Guage is on emty, but it's OK 'cause I still have a couple gallons left... Darn, the cruise control is acting up, won't hold 75 on this little uphill stretch north of the Harbor freeway. I nurse it off the freeway, and manage to coast to within about 200 ft of the only gas station within sight for miles. A little uphill shoving gets me within range, but I can't quite get it up the driveway apron. A couple rather scruffy looking guys had been sitting on a bus bench watching all this, and ran over--- fortunately to help push the car! Twenty ONE gallons of Unocal's best filled it to the top. One of the guys wandered back from their bus bench, and in broken spanglish asked for two dollars. I gave him a five, and figured my angels were watching over me. He was surprised, walked back to the bench as I finished filling the car. After some loud discussion between them, the two wandered back over to the station attendant inside the bulletproof kiosk, trying to convince him (in Spanish) that they needed to split the five bucks in half.


For those interested, the procedure for calibrating the fuel tank level system on '89+ cars is detailed in section 20-19 of the service manual. Starting with an empty tank, add fifteen liters (four gallons) of fuel to the tank. Allow the sender to settle for a few minutes. Pull the operating lever for the display unit, and turn the ignition on while holding the lever. The display will read "TANK EICHEN" (calibrate tank) in the left display, and "15 LITER" in the right display. Press the reset button in the center console until "15" appears in the center display. The system is now calibrated. Use this procedure after the instrument cluster is removed or the tank sender is disconnected for any reason.

dr bob

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