My gas needle wont move its stuck in the middle, I've taken the dash apart and tapped the needle still nothing.

If I got a new cluster.would.it recognize the current mileage on my engine or is the mileage set on the cluster from the other car it's in?


All help is appreciated

 

Im pretty sure the mileage is set on the car the cluster came out of. Hence why its a felony to sell a car with a different cluster that has less mileage.

If you know you're gonna keep the car then swap clusters with one at the junk yard.

 

Thats the thing I wanna sell it, but I dont wanna get bad valve because of gas needle not working. I'll fix the needle somehow. I just thought I could get a replacement cluster and have miles adjusted to my current tl. Everything I see is over 100k on the dash while my tl just hit 90k.

 

If you do swap it make sure you write the numbers down. What the difference from the actual mileage to the other cluster

 

Everything I'm seeing is high mileage, 159k 220k etc my tl is at 90k

 

[QUOTE=shizzytheking;14073716]My gas needle wont move its stuck in the middle, I've taken the dash apart and tapped the needle still nothing. / [QUOTE]



Hey Shizzy, I'm unsure if you're aware that the real problem may be within your fuel tank. There's a float sensor integrated into the fuel pump.....these can go bad and loose their calibration, in turn giving a bad reading on the dash's fuel level indicator.

So, try that and keep your low mileage original cluster. Hopefully you didn't mess anything up by pulling the panel cluster and attempting to "fix" the needle.

 

thanks, hopefully I didn't mess it up. I'll put some gas in and see if it moves at all.

 

Does anyone know for sure, I just replace the cluster would it pick of the mileage from the wires on my car, or is it programmed inside the cluster for mileage. I just need the needles to good again.

 

The mileage is actually saved in the printed circuit board.

 

thanks, i was afraid of that

 

You can swap the circuit board to the new one. Just some soldering involved.

 

Actually there is no soldering involved. It's super easy to separate from the cluster. All you need is some needle nose pliers. Not a big deal at all.

 

If your main concern is to fix the faulty fuel guage in the dash , you can try adding gas.....as I'm sure that you've already tried that, Duh !

But seriously if the guage never changes, it's not always just the guage's needle. As I previously stated: There is a sending unit sensor that is part of the fuel pump located within the gas tank. With age and the junky gas this device can fail due to cruddy deposits built up on it. There is also a float mechanism to check along with wiring connections, etc.

Simply pulling on the needle will serve absolutely no purpose whatsoever !
Unless you want to have a reason to replace the dash panel. But, if the same problem comes right back.....don't be a bit surprised ! Dah....!

 

It's an extremely easy process to check the functionality of fuel gauge. All you need is a 2 ohm resistor from radio shack (1/8 or 1/4 watt should do the job) and then pop the trunk so you can remove the carpeted mat that covers your spare tire. Once that is removed, you may have to also peel back the carpet that sits right behind the back of the rear seats. Once this is done, you should see a circular shaped piece of metal held in place by a few screws. Be careful when lifting this plate up not to pull the harness beyond its limit. When lifted up high enough you can then disconnect the white (I believe it's white) connector that plugs into the top of the fuel pump assembly. There will be 4 wires on that connector. The two we are concerned about are the black (there will be two black wires, I'm referring to the smaller black wire) and then a yellow/blue wire. With the ignition in the OFF position, install the 2 ohm resistor between these two wires. Bend the resistor into a "U" shape so that each end of the wire can fit inside the terminals. Makes sure that the resistor doesn't fall out and then carefully sit that down and then go back to the front and turn the ignition switch to "ON"...not that it would start but don't turn to "START". The fuel gauge, IF functional, should climb in a fluid motion to the FULL mark. And then when the key is turned back to "OFf" (with resistor still in place) the gauge should fall back to EMPTY in a fluid motion. If neither of these responses are seen, chances are the gauge itself can be replaced. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO REPLACE THE ENTIRE CLUSTER TO FIX THIS PROBLEM. Here are the part numbers for the gauge and notice that the numbers are different between type s and non type s models.

Without Type S 78130S0KA03 $41.18
With Type S 78130S0KA11 $41.18

The prices that are listed are my shops price so retail should be roughly 15-20% additional to that.

This is NOT a thorough diagnosis and is only meant to assist in determining the probable cause of the issue. You could still possibly have a wiring fault so be aware before diving straight in on this.

Good luck!

 

Thanks Yungone501 for this very informative and relatively simple check for anybody having problems with their "fuel gauge" malfunctioning.

This would definitely answer Shizzy's concern of odo mileage differing from a replacement donor dash cluster, by him being able to retain his low mileage original cluster. The main thing here is to eliminate the sending unit sensor as the culprit to the faulty gauge reading.

 

Thanks for everybody's help, I should resolve this problem easily now!!!

 

Hey Shizzy, was the sending unit the fault with your guage malfunction ?
Please follow up with what was done to resolve your problem, thanks !