I notice that from the time I start the car to after I am driving for a few minutes, the gas needle goes up about 1/8 of a tank. Is this normal? Whats the correct reading?

 

this is just a shot in the dark but... if you have any varrnish buildup on the sending unit, it can cause an increased resistance, after driving, the slosh wears off the varnish and you have an accurate reading again.

again, this is just a guess

 

this is probably a dumb question/answer but is where you park completely level? If not I notice mine jumping around a liitle as well...

 

good call^^

 

Took the words right out of my mouth. I reset my trip computer once as I was going down a hill. Near the bottom, my gas gauge went up by 1/8 of a tank and the computer said I was getting 44mpg. If only it were true...

 

Nope, no matter where I park. I mean, its a little more drastic while on a hill, but even when in my driveway and garage. Oh well, its not a big deal.

 

My blazer used to do it all the time when i accelerated or deaccelerated. I will ask my dad later what was wrong with it. I can't remember right now too early.

 

well i know if you're driving really hard and then start driving normal (shifts at 2.5~3k) you'll notice your gas needle rise too... most fuel injected cars are this way iirc..

 

yep, because of an anti-slosh module, usually integrated into the cluster.

 

my needle drops when i swerve to left and goes back up when i swerve right

 

Mine does this as well and corrects itself after a few minutes.

 

yeah....if i drive really hard...then go back to normal driving the needle will go back up

 

I was going to say mine also does that when I swerve right or go around a hard right turn, it goes down and comes back when I go to the left.

 

well under acceleration u might think that the sensor is on the back of the tank so it reads higher because the acceleration is pushing the gas towards that back. Or do you mean it does it for 10 minutes?

 

The reason that your needle is doing that is probably from the floater inside the tank. It might not be able to fully read the gas level when the car is first started. Try changing the floater unit if it really becomes a problem because I had a friend whose car went from empty to full and back to empty. Hope that helps

 

My car does the same thing as well. I really wouldn't worry about it a lot. The gas gauge actually fluctuates naturally under normal driving. Anyway, we can go so far with the light on Id say worry about it at that point.