Odometer as Gas Gauge

[1990new]

Of the three Festivas in my family, two must rely on the odometer to
determine when a gas fill up is needed because the Gas Gauges don't work.

Does anyone know of an easy and inexpensive way to get the gas gauge to work again.

Anyone have a Festiva with more that 125,000 on it with an original working gas gauge?

(Gage misspelled in Title but can't edit.)

[Eaglefreek]

Mine has 228K miles and it works fine. It is easy to get to the sending unit in the tank. There is access under the rear seat. Then you would have to troubleshoot to see if it's getting power and sending the proper resistance to the gauge.

[GenevaDirt]

try unplugging the the connection on back of the speedo for starters...making sure it makes a good connection. Then check the ground to the sending unit. I had one that did not work the whole time I owned it....swapped in a tach/speedo combo and it worked from that day on.

[Oren09]

What about inaccurate gas gauges?
Mine follows the tank level alright, but moves around a lot and drops quick during the last quarter. It will go to the red line with 1.5 gallons left in the tank. It has full motion and doesn't just drop down suddenly. It's just kinda of annoying.

[JPT]

Mine has about 125K on it (don't know for sure, speedo works when it wants to) and the gas gauge is fine.

What about inaccurate gas gauges?
Mine follows the tank level alright, but moves around a lot and drops quick during the last quarter. It will go to the red line with 1.5 gallons left in the tank. It has full motion and doesn't just drop down suddenly. It's just kinda of annoying.

My gas gauge does the same thing. When it gets down to the last quarter of a tank, it drops fast.

[econoaddict]

Anyone have a Festiva with more that 125,000 on it with an original working gas gauge?

3 of them, 2 have over 200k and work fine.

[kellcomnet]

250,000 since it joined our family.....2005 was a road trip year. i had to replace the sending unit when i first got it.

[htchbck]

If the speedo is already iffy then I'd say the first place to check would be the connections on the back of the cluster. Does the gauge stay at "full" or "empty" or somewhere in between? Could be the fuel sending unit in the tank, or the wiring, or the gauge itself.

Troubleshooting:

If gauge always says empty:
- open wire
-blown 10-amp meter fuse
- open ground at sending unit
- bad sending unit
- bad gauge
- fuel tank float stuck at bottom of tank

If it always says full:
- gauge wires shorted to ground
- bad sending unit
- bad gauge
- float stuck at top of tank

If it stays somewhere in the middle:
- bad gauge
- float stuck somewhere in the middle

If someone can chime in with which color the fuel sender wire that goes to the gauge is, then a quick test for the gauge is to ground that wire with the ignition on and the gauge should go up to "full" within a few seconds. I'm assuming yours stays on empty?

[89newb]

mine was black with a white stripe, ground was red
dont know if that helps...ive learned that alotof the wiring in my festy is not original

[crazyrog17]

What about inaccurate gas gauges?
Mine follows the tank level alright, but moves around a lot and drops quick during the last quarter. It will go to the red line with 1.5 gallons left in the tank. It has full motion and doesn't just drop down suddenly. It's just kinda of annoying.

I have the same and am hoping for a solution to chime in here.

I'll have a half tank one morning and a quarter when I leave work... 6 miles later?