Fuel Guage gone wacky

[nmu1974]

Yesterday I stopped and pumped 45.544 gallons of diesel into my 2003 7.3 Excursion. After starting up the engine, the fuel guage move moved to 1/8 of the way from empty stayed there for about 5 minutes. The low fuel alarm then came on and it completely shut off, the needle was pointing to the 5:00 position. After a couple of minutes it came back up to about 1/4 full, again stayed there for a couple of minutes, sounded the low fuel alarm, and then fell back to the 5:00 position. I then pulled to the side of the road and tried to solve the problem by shutting down the engine, but that did not help either. After visiting my niece for about 2 hours I restarted the engine and the needle finally eeked it's way to the full position, but that took about a full 40 minutes to accomplish. Any ideas why this should happen or is this just one of those "Excursion Gremlins". Should I trust the guage or replace it? Is there any way to reset it (you know, like the S.O.P. of turning on the head lights to reset your automatic climate control system)?

 

[rebelchevy02]

Did you notice if it was the ultra low sulfur diesel? My 2002 psd pickup did that, on what im sure was my first tank of ULSD, not that it should matter, but it did the exact same thing, took about 40 mins of driving to achieve full.... Since then, i had a tank that didnt want to come down from full at a normal pace one time, untill it was around 1/2 tank, then it was normal.... I keep track of this by mileage so thats how i know it wasnt normal. But it still seems to function. It may not have had anything to do with the ULSD but who believes in coincidense. Ive since put 5k on and havent had any other problems...... hope this helps

 

[nmu1974]

Thanks for the info. In fact it was ULSD. I haven't had any problem as the fuel is used, in fact for the next 2 fill-ups everything seems to be normal. I guess only time will tell.

 

[rebelchevy02]

Thanks for the info. In fact it was ULSD. I haven't had any problem as the fuel is used, in fact for the next 2 fill-ups everything seems to be normal. I guess only time will tell.

Like i said, ive had both ULSD and LSD (not the drug) in my truck since then, and quite a few fillups, even with the 47 gal tank, and its been fine since, I wouldnt worry about it. Even if my gauge died, i know how many miles a tank anyways lol