Anyone ever experience this? I have a 2004 Civic Sedan EX that I've only owned for about 2 months. The gas gauge is sometimes very lazy in responding to my filling up the tank. Sometimes it works just fine and I can watch it rising as I'm filling up. At other times, I fill up, and the gauge remains on empty, and it may take several hours for the gauge to respond to being full, and reflect it with the needle. This is frustrating. I have also wandered at times when filling up, if the tank is not really full when it forces the gas pump to shut off, because I can tell by the gallons filled, that the tank should not be full. Do I have a problem with the fuel sending unit?

My fuel gauge isn't that accurate either, but it's no where near as bad as yours. When I fill my tank up, the needle is up to the top. Then it stays there for about 100 km, then drops to about 75% of the way, then slowly goes down to 50%, and hovers there for a while. Then it drops to 25%, then drops to empty, and the light goes on, when in reality I have 10 litres left in the tank.

I have the same issue. It actually happened about 20 mins ago. I had 1/4 of a tank.... dropped to empty and the light went on. Slowly made its way back to just under a 1/4 of a tank.... light went off.

Not sure what to do either... I go by mileage too so its not a big deal.

No one has gotten this checked-out before? I have an appt for this Friday. Will be sure to post afterwards, when I find out the problem, and solution.

Part of what some of you are seeing is the anti-slosh strategy. You aren't supposed to fill the tank with the key on or the engine running, it will take a really long time to update the gauge.

The other part (intermittently dropping to empty) sounds like bad sending units.

just go by the trip.

i know my car gets about 380 before the light comes on so i usually pour around 350.

This happens to mine occasionally. It used to do it pretty much every tank, but now probably ever 4 or 5 tanks it happens.

Mine has does the same thing since I got it about 7 months ago. Meh, it's just something I've gotten used to. I find it funny that my light comes on, and I can drive around for almost 60 miles and my engine doesn't even sputter. Then after 80 miles, it might sputter once. I've had it sputter a decent amount once when coming home from a desert party, but it kept going for about 30 miles after that. I just don't trust it and go by mileage. I think it has to do with the sensors. Wish I knew if they were this way brand new.

this is a known issue and honda issued a recall on faulty guages its actualy the guage in the dash not reading correctly however it is now out of warrenty and good luck getting honda to cover it the only way to fix it is to get a new guage it has to do with the company that manufactured them i believe the replacement one are made by a new company all together ill post the tsb if i can find it.

https://www.civicforums.com/forums/a...7&d=1296455079

Ooh, that's almost correct. There is no recall, but there IS the TSB.

I replied earlier without even looking for TSBs....My bad.

Eh I can live with it

Mine is a bit laggy as well. But it certainly doesnt take an hour to read full. Sometimes my gas light will come on and after a few minutes of driving it goes off.

My girlfriend asks about it and I tell her its a special hybrid and makes its own gas.

my fuel gauge goes wacko around 1/4 tank and fuel light comes on at 1/4 tank instead of E

I just got my 03 Ex a week ago and I thought I was burning through a lot of fuel (when I drove about 100km it dropped to 3/4 from full) but when I looked at the mileage I did I just didn't realize it stayed on full for a long time and then dropped to 3/4 suddenly.

I usually get 500-600 km per tank so i go by that. It depends how i drive. Also dont fill thr tank with the car on. Mimes always off when i fill, ive never had ur problem. My car usually gets to half after 200km and from half to empty its another 300 km

Eh, my fuel gauge has its odd tendencies too. Particularly when it goes below 1/4 tank. When I first start the car, it shows 1/8 full, but as I drive (maybe for about 5 minutes) it drops to the point the warning light comes on. About 10 minutes after that, it climbs a bit and the light goes off. Other than that it works fine. Sounds like your situation deals with something faulty in the sending unit. Run the gauge diagnostics to make sure the gauge itself works well.

As far as filling the car goes, I must agree with you. Each time I fill up, the nozzle clicks off WAY before the tanks is actually full. I can stand there and feed more gas in slowly, almost 2-3 more gallons. I usually fill it to somewhere around 11 to 11.5 gallons as I run my car until the warning light comes on.

Just called the dealer and the replacement gauge cluster runs $871.71. Labor $104/1 hr. Out of warranty and since I'm the second owner I don't qualify for the "goodwill consideration by the District Parts and Service Manager or Zone Office". Need to be the original owner. $871 for the instrument cluster. What a crock!

go on ebay and find one with similar mileage for $100 and plug it in yourself. takes 10 minutes if that. but more than likely the fuel sending unit is the problem, not the gauges.

Can i ask why its bad to fill the gas with the car running?

Theres a TSB somewhere for the fuel guage. Some dealers will replace it for free some wont. The "original owner" stuff sounds like a load of BS. Its just a matter of finding a good dealer and building relationships.

Its possible to throw an evap code.

Also it increases the chances of causing a fire with heat from the car. (Chances are slim to none, but why risk it)

Save yourself the fuel.

Also the sign usualy says it, can you really argue what the sign says lol

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