gas guage problem - 2001 lw300

[tom]

Hi all,

I have had a strange problem crop up over the past 6 or 8 weeks. When I
park my car, a 2001 lw300, in the driveway, if the gas guage reads less than
1/4 full, the car won't start. The slope of the driveway is very gradual.
I am not on a hill of any sort. In the past, I was able to park the car and
start it, even if the fuel light was on.

If I add about .5 gals of gas, the car starts right up. It doesn't matter
if the tank is 1/4 or even about 1/8 full, just that little bit of gas makes
the difference. As I write this, I was thinking, is it possible that taking
the cap off and putting it back on has anything to do with this?

I took the car to the local Saturn dealer to have it checked out. They
checked the signals coming from the sensor and did not find any problems. I
bought the car new in Sept of 2000.

Any ideas?

thanks,
Tom

 

[Dana Rohleder]

I went through 2 sender units in my 2002 LW300 in the first two years. Are
you absolutely positive there is 1/4 tank of gas when the gauge reads 1/4,
or is it possible your tank is empty, and the gauge is reading too high? My
gauge would only show 3/4 tank right after I filled it. I suspect they get
messed up when you try to top off the tank more than a click or two at
fill-ups, but if that were the case, I would think there would be a TSB
about it. Did the dealer offer any explanations??

Dana

 

[tom]

When the tank is about 1/4 full, I fill it up. I put in about 10 or 11
gals. That seems about right to me. When I fill the tank, the level gauge
goes all the way to full. The dealer did not offer any additional
explanations. He said they could pull the gas tank, to do more
investigations, but there is a $250 charge for that. For that price, I
reckon I can fill it up at 1/4 for a while.

I don't usually top off the tank. When the pump shuts off, I generally stop
filling at that point.

Thanks for the feedback Dana.

Tom