I have been getting false readings from my fuel gauge and my MTE reading. When I come home at night I check to see what the gauge reads and how many miles to empty. When I get in the truck in the morning it is about 100 miles less than when I came home the night before.
This also happened tonight when I went out ,the miles to empty read 240 and by the time I got home it read 305 and I had to have gone 40 miles.
Has anyone else had this problem,and if so what was done to fix it.
2010 FX2

 

That's been happening on my 08 since I've had it. Worse if I park on an incline. The first couple times it happened I thought someone was stealing my gas!

 

^x2 welcome to the club

 

This could happen if you just reset the meter and allowed the engine to idle before you left in the first instance. In the second, if it was just reset it could happen. The MTE is calculated based on your avg mpg, so if there are wild fluctuations in that there will be wild fluctuations in your MTE.

 

You do realize that parking on an incline will throw off your fuel gauge and as such will also throw off your MTE as well, correct?

 

this happens to me often......... whenever i park on an incline

 

Yesterday I filled up the truck, engine off, came home parked in garage. This morning I started mine up and it read 3/4 tank. After driving 30 miles it started to ease back up and finally hit full. I wonder if the float is crapping out on me or of its electrical.

 

Yeah I do realize that it happens in a poorly engineered vehicle. My Volvo doesn't do this at all. The slope is minimal and it does it when it's flat as well. We're talking 1/3 of a tank at night and empty in the morning if I put $5 in it usually corrects. Again, my Volvo won't do this even on a fairly steep incline. I've also had the MTE suddenly read 0km to empty when the gas gauge was reading 1/4 tank!

 

So what is the consensus on this? Is it a problem, or just a design flaw? Should we be worried if our truck's gauge is doing the same thing?
I park on an incline (driveway) and mine does the same thing. My drive to work in the morning is 30 minutes, mainly highway. Shouldn't the gauge regulate by then? Or should we reset the MTE meter every time we fill up?

Thanks,...New to the forum.

Al

 

What year are your trucks? My '09 had a problem (exagerated when I was on an incline in the driveway). It was bad enough that I took it in. Dealer knew what it was and reflashed something. In the future, it would still show off *some* but it very quickly reset back to normal within a minute or two of driving (vs prior to them working on the truck it'd stay with the new inclined number for hours).

 

Guys, this is NOT a problem. Ford uses what are called "dummy" gauges. They don't read instantenously like Chevys. Oil pressure, water temp, etc all stay in a "good" zone until something goes bad. Our fuel gauges are kinda like this too. They slowly move based off measurements from the float gauge in the tank. I've driven up to 10 Fords and this is common with them all.

 

Thanks guys, I appreciate the input. Alex, is it common for it to take like 15-20 minutes to "regulate?" Thanks, Al

 

Truck is a 2011 F-150 XLT, off road package.

 

You also have to remember the size and shape of the gas tank in the F-150 versus a car like your Volvo. In passenger cars, the tanks are usually trapezoidal in shape, and fairly compact. In the F-150, it's a long and shallow tank that runs the length of the frame under the bed, on the passenger side IIRC.

Thus, when parking on any incline, the float in the tank is going to be off by a good margin in the F-150, compared to any car.

-John

 

It's only on the passenger side if you have a right hand drive model.