Yes. According to the March 2014 issue of Corvette magazine:
"...do a web search with the relevant terms and you'll find lots of BMW, Honda, Ford, Chrysler, and Toyota owners who are complaining and asking about the same ailment."

 

I'll give this a try. I was hesitating at upping the dosage by fear of damaging something, but if you fixed this way, I'm tempted..... thanks.

 

This was recommended to be me by a Corvette Specialty Shop in my area.
He said let it soak, so to speak. No hurry to use up that tank of gas.
Whether this coincidentally fixed itself or the Techron did it cant say but it sure beat having to drop the fuel tanks to replace senders.

 

I did the Techron trick and it worked for awhile and then it stopped working. It was just becoming a waste of money to buy it. Eventually just sucked it up and spent the $550 at the dealer to have it fixed the right way. Now I don't have to worry about how full my tank really is, or reset the trip every time I fill up.

 

Soaking as we speak.


What exactly is involved? I hear it's a major pain to get to the tanks.
$550 actually sounds better than all I've heard so far....

 

I had this problem twice in less than a year. interestingly, dealer said it was right hand sensor and replaced it under warranty. a few miles down the road it came right back. when they checked it again, they told me it had a fault code of "engine running while fueling". I have owned it since new and that has not occurred. they cleared the code and its been ok.

I tried the techron thing and it wrked for a few weeks then came back. I then ran it completely out of fuel and filled with a gallon I carried to get me to a station. it went away for a few weeks and came back. its frustrating.

 

Yes, it is a pain. They have to drop the rear cradle. Once that's dropped they pull the tanks, replace the bad parts and put it all back together. To me it was worth the money. A huge relief to know where my fuel level is.

 

Keeping fingers crossed for you.

 

Close up on the fuel lever sensor in the tank.





These are the rheostat contact bars that you see, and on the wiper piece (white plastic with the bar attached to it) a set of two prong swiper arms that moves across the bars to send the resistance reading. The bar is part of the float assembly that sends the arm's swipers up and down on the bars, depending on the amount of fuel in the tank

When the fuel gauge gets to 1/2 full, the passenger tank is empty, and the bars are now exposed to air to corrode them. Throw in some fuels that can cause problem on the rheostat bars too, and this is the beginning to the problem.

Since the swipers have to move across the the bars in direct contact, the more corroded the bars contacts become, the faster than the two prong swiper arms wear out instead.

So the Techron is foremost to keep the rheostat bars clean, and the cleaner the bars are, the longer the swiper arm two prongs last.

So the techron in the fill up now will help to clean/keep the rheostat pads clean, and so long as the swiper arms are not worn out, should solve the problem.

If it does not solve the problem, then the swiper arms prongs are worn out, and time to drop the tank to change out the $30 fuel sending unit (parts cost is the cheap part at around $100 with new O rings, it's the $1000+ labor bill the hard part to swallow for a dealer to drop the tank to get to replace the fuel sending unit, the put the tank back in place instead).

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...fuel-pump.html

Worn out swiper arms shows at 1:18, even though the rheostat contact pad bars is in good condition from Techron cleanings.

 

I take it when your battery needs replacing you'll access it by Sawzalling through the dashboard.

 

Cormudd does have a good point though. We need more access panels installed for things that fail over time, and bet you could tastefully cut out a section above the fuel tanks, and make it bolt back in.

It might even make it easier for rear end lube changes, etc....

I know one thing, Cormudd has me thinking, if I ever have to replace mine again. The first time, warranty covered it.

 

Very brief in your post. Looks like you cut access to get to the crossover tube to pull off the tank. Does this mean you did that and still dropped the tank to swap the sender?

Would be nice if the float and sender could be pulled out from the hole without dropping the tank. How confident were you that you wouldn't cut into anything important?

 

"How confident were you that you wouldn't cut into anything important?"

Must have been pretty confident. Some of that looks like it was cut out with an axe.

 

True, the cut doesn't look too "refined" if I may say so, but the idea of an access trap for this purpose is clever.
Maybe he should run with the concept an start selling a DIY "fast access to the fuel sensor kit" with precise instructions.....

I know a few. including myself, that would be interested.
Definitely one more GM engineering flaw right there.

 

By my count he cut through at least two very important things: 1) the formerly one-piece, formerly-weatherproof rear tub, and 2) the formerly-stiff chassis itself. That car is worth far less butchered up like that than it would have cost to pay a mechanic to do the job properly.

I've done this job. It can be difficult, but trashing the car is hardly the solution.

 

Or try my solution. The sender is just a variable resistor. I cut the wires to the sender and connected them to a couple of Radio Shack resistors so the BCM "thinks" the sender is functioning.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...68-issues.html

 

But . . . but . . . Radio Shack is bankrupt.

J/K, great write-up. It's way over my head, but if I ever have to fix it a good buddy of mine will have no problem with your instructions.

 

Yes i have to admitt the cutting I did looks crude in these photos. I spent a whole week making those cuts. When I was done I cleaned them up and re sealed the tub and added a stiff piece of metal to the structual part. It came out very nice.