gas light

[da kang3]

hey everybody, my gas light keeps coming on and off so i dont ever know when im actually gonna run outta gas. and my gas needle does the same, i could have a full tank of gas, and i know this cause i just put it in there, and the needle will drop to like either a half or quarter tank line. i know some of u will say 'well just drive until it runs out and then u'll know', well im doin that now, or 'just fill it up when u think it's gonna run out' but the problem with both of those is that if im like an hour or so away from where i live and i run outta gas, i gotta tow it or walk to a gas station hopefully somewhere nearby. and that could be detremental to my relationship with my eclipse. anyone else havin this problem or know how i could fix it

 

[luv2rallye]

First check the bottom of your fuel tank to see if it's been bashed in. The most likely cause of your problem, however, will be a bad fuel gauge sender (AWD has 2 senders - one under each rear seat that are connected in series). Disconnect them and ground the driver's harness side yellow wire (not yellow/black). Fuel gauge should now go to full when key is turned to on (bad gauge if it doesn't). Now remove the ground and measure resistance between the driver's sensor side yellow and yellow/black wire. It should be 2 ohms if full and 50 ohms if empty. Now measure resistance between the passenger's sensor side yellow/black and black wire. It should be 2 ohms if full and 57 ohms if empty. Now make sure you have 0 resistance from the passenger's harness side black wire to ground.

 

[Defiant]

The driveshaft situation makes the AWD DSMs have two gas tanks. The fuel return line is used to create a jet pump which pulls fuel from the driver's side to the passenger's, where the pump is. There is a sender on each side, and they're supposed to kind of average things out, but they don't really. The passenger side is the one that has the low-level light on it. If you're about 3/4 down in gas and take a good, hard right turn, it'll throw enough gas to the driver's side to bring the light on, which will go off again once the jet pump has pulled enough back to the passenger side to turn it off. A hard left turn can also move the gas over enough to turn out the light in a tank that's a lot closer to empty than you thought it was.
Your best bet is to learn your car's range and drive by the tripmeter.
I don't know if the plastic AWD tank will dent enough to affect the level readings without breaking.