my fuel tank indicator is inaccurate???

[Dilip]

Recently i've noticed that i run out of gas before my fuel tank touches empty.

Yesterday in particular.....i had about 1/8th of a tank left, but the low fuel indicator light did not come on yet. However when i was accelerating, the car just suddenly went off.... i ran out of gas.

How is it possible that the fuel tank indicator on my dash could be inaccurate?

I ended up buying gas from a nearby gas station and filled up a tin into my car to start it, then drive back. And.... i ended up filling 64 litres in my car, and my tank is rated for 64 litres. that shows that my indicator really is malfunctioning.

is it an easy fix?

[lordhamster]

I never trust my gas needle. I've heard of this happening to to many people. So what I do is, every time I fill my tank, I reset the trip odometer. Then whenever I reach between 320-350 miles, I fill the tank, regardless of what the needle says. My old car would always show full, then suddenly drop to empty.

[AirMoore]

Sounds like you have a problem with your 'float' in your gas tank.

[SmaartAasSaabr]

That's happened a lot with my father's 626...

On my Saabs the gauges are pretty inaccurate also. But at least they are always inaccurate in a pessimistic way :lol:

[stealthJamal]

My gas gauge is not accurate either. Mine indicates I'm out of gas when I still have some.

[Dilip]

IT used to be very accurate until this year.

Is it easy for mazda to fix?

[AirMoore]

IT used to be very accurate until this year.

Is it easy for mazda to fix?

Shouldnt be hard, if it is your gas tank float/sending unit... they just replace the assembley: Only problem is they have to drain your gas tank, and I am not sure if on your Mazda they need to take off the tank from the car to get that out.

Go to a Mazda forum... and look for problems such as tankfloats/sending units being incorrect and failing on your model... or take it to the dealer if your under warrenty, and say you think your sending unit and or tank float is having problems. :wink:

[AirMoore]

Have you done what I said yet Dilip? I really believe that will be the solutions to your problems... at least it was for me.

[SmaartAasSaabr]

Does anyone remember those faulty seatbelts from some Japanese supplier that seemed to be on every single ~89-92 Japanese made car produced? :lol:

Maybe your car and Dilip's Mazda had the same bad batch of sending units :)

[Dilip]

airmoore, thanks for ur suggestion.
Sometime next week i plan on taking it to mazda to get them fixed coz its still under warranty, and they need to fix some other stuff for me too.

i gotta get new spark plugs, new engine & transmission mounts, and also new brake discs. If i complain the car has too much vibrations, theyw ill change it for me for free. They did it last time at 50,000 KM. Now i'm on 102,000 KM and the same problems seem to occur.

How often do people change engine mounts and brake discs usually? I mean the actual brake disc, not the pad.

[SmaartAasSaabr]

Generally the brake disc will last for a very long time. In fact, I am still running the original brake discs on the back of my 20 year old 900 S :lol: and one is really badly warped :lol:

Usually unless you use an extremely aggressive pad, the disc should be good for a long time, until it goes down below it's minimum thickness. However a lot of discs are replaced because they are warped. Warping usually only happens when you brake too hard, overheating the disc, and it warps it slightly.

Must be all that fun you have with nvr2fast :lol: :lol:

But hey, if Mazda will change it free, who cares? You only live once :P

[Dilip]

Hey Saab!

hahah, yes it's because of all the fun i'm having with nvr2fast. But even before i met this guy through radardetector.net, i still had my discs changed at around 50 or 60,000 KM's, my front discs were slightly warped and they changed it for free. I"ve been using stock pads. Thing is on the mountains i really do brake too hard, and too much that the brakes get really hot and sometimes i lose brake power, thats when i stop. Also u can smell it.

This will be the last time they'll change it for me for free coz my warranty finishes in July. I"m not gonna let them change it now, i'll wait another few months :)

What about the mounting issue though? Is it normal to have the mounts worn out after 50,000 km of aggressive driving?

[amoney]

So Dilip, how is your car performing with new spark plugs and everything, be carfull trying to get that needle 199. :wink:

[SmaartAasSaabr]

Hey Saab!


What about the mounting issue though? Is it normal to have the mounts worn out after 50,000 km of aggressive driving?

Wow I didn't even notice that! NO way engine/trans mounts should wear out so quickly... even 250 000 km they should still be good... usually that's only like a "time" thing, after the rubber deteriorates like 20 years they start crapping out.

Unless you have hydraulic mounts... but still in that case, I would expect at least 10 years / 200 000 km... never had that go ever on the Mazdas around here (MX-6 -88 400 000km and 626 -96 200 000km)

[Dilip]

Amoney:

i haven't fixed up my car yet, gonna get the new plugs in the next day or two. However strange last week i managed to touch 200 but it took me forever to do that. I guess it can really depend on wind conditions eh? Coz i did it with my sunroof open again..... But i'm very sure my car is slow compared to b4. Especially my low-end torque.

Saab:
Yeah at approx 50-60,000 KM they already changed the mountings of the engine & transmission because my car was vibrating a lot.
Back when i had my mazda 626, i also had to change the mounts at 75,000KM. why is it like that? could it be too rough driving? Or is it that mazda's mounts are lousy?

[SmaartAasSaabr]

I don't think rough driving would really affect it. Now that you mention it, I do notice a bit of vibration in the '96 626... maybe they should be changed...

but yeah, even on a Mazda I wouldn't expect the mounts to fail so early... how bad is the vibration, really bad or only noticeable at certain times?

I know the old test on a Saab of the mounts, open the hood, get someone to look at the engine, put car in 1st gear and stand on the brake and let go of the clutch a little, and if the engine jumps up then you need to change the mounts.

[Dilip]

The vibrations when the car is stationary but on drive is very bad, and it makes these deep bass noise in the engine. even on idle u can feel it vibrate. and when u reach high rpms the engine is much more noisier. basically it just vibrates too much.

after i got the mounts changed, it seemed like a day/night difference. Its surprising u still have the original mounts in your 96 626.

626 is a good car too! i had my fun in that! i had it for 3 years until i switched to the m6

[SmaartAasSaabr]

Eh, my dad in 1987 bought a MX-6 brand new (2 door 626, 5-speed). And he loved it, reliable, easy to fix and good gas milage (always 36 miles per US gallon) put 400 000km on it. But it got rusty underneath and he bought the 96 626 (in 2000). But the 626 has been since then a real piece of junk, automatic transmission, idling, poor gas milage, very very slow, and very hard to repair (all the parts are in bad spots... for example, to change the alternator, it takes several hours and you have to remove the crossmember and take it out from underneath!) etc all the time...

A couple days ago I was in a junkyard, and all of a sudden they have several 1993-97 626's in. (last fall there were zero). One of them I noticed, a 626 ES, about 1993-94, it had 475 000 km on the odometer! :shock:

So I guess if you get a 626 with a 5-speed and V6 it isn't so bad. But the 4 cylinder automatic, geez it is SLOW, unreliable and a real pain to fix.

[Dilip]

yea my 2.0L auto 626 was slow....... i coudln't go over 190 on the straights no matter how hard i tried.

but i didn't have much problems with it.

[SmaartAasSaabr]

yea my 2.0L auto 626 was slow....... i coudln't go over 190 on the straights no matter how hard i tried.

but i didn't have much problems with it.

Maybe it's that "Made in the USA" quality :wink: :wink:

This 626 can only go 170 :lol:

[Dilip]

hhaha made in usa quality.

maybe coz in HK its constant stop/go traffic and so many hills and hardly any highways