fuel gauge/low fuel alert

[hoosierguy60]

hello everyone , bought a 97 C5 , moved up from the 86 C4 .... problem is , when i hit a bump the gas gauge goes to the big " E" and the alert comes on saying low fuel ... something loose or ?? havent had the car long , but the guy i bought it off of warned me that it happens , has anyone had problems with this ... any answers would be appreciated ....didnt know to wait till winter or jump into it to repair it .... thanks mike

[MsSchroder]

Hello, congrats on your C5.

It is a common problem, and could be caused by several things.
First, try switching to a gasoline that contains the techron additive (such as Chevron), or buy the additive and add it to a tank or two (do a search on "techron" to find some posts with details about that).

If that fails, then you have to move on to consider more expensive problems involving the fuel sender assembly and related components.

check this TSB (click) or this one (click) ... and this one (click) is specific to 2002's, and involves a PCM reflash, but talks about excessive sulfur buildup that could be caused by lower quality gasoline- a problem that is not exclusive to 02's. I'm not sure if there is any PCM reflash available on the 97's.
Tammy

[hoosierguy60]

thanks alot for getting back so quickly, this is alot of great info that i can use to troubleshoot the problem ... i still need to get a manual for the car and look into the proper tools for the job .... again thanks ... mike

[c5vetter]

one other thing - make sure when you tighten the gas cap, you hear it click - need to close pressure system and if not will cause problem

[Glenn W.]

My '97 does the same thing (surprised me 1/2 way home from Portland when I first bought it last year!!). Mine seems to be caused by the readings from the two senders in the two fuel tanks. If they don't agree with each other, you will get the default "e" on your dash. The sulfur build up on one or both is, I am sure the cause of mine.........
One thing that really seemed to help mine was a great fuel system cleaner called BG44K. It is a little hard to find and is usually about $20+, but you should be able to locate it with a search engine, as I bought mine that way. Lots of mechanics use it when people are having injector problems, I've heard. After using this, the problem dropped from every 45 miles to about once every two months, or every other tank full.............
Does yours reset like mine if you turn off the car for about fifteen seconds?

[hoosierguy60]

i was told by someone else to try the same thing .... i may try that instead of the more costly sensor repair .... it seems to be doing it more now then b4 and i have put several hundreds of mile on it ... thanks alot .... mike

My '97 does the same thing (surprised me 1/2 way home from Portland when I first bought it last year!!). Mine seems to be caused by the readings from the two senders in the two fuel tanks. If they don't agree with each other, you will get the default "e" on your dash. The sulfur build up on one or both is, I am sure the cause of mine.........
One thing that really seemed to help mine was a great fuel system cleaner called BG44K. It is a little hard to find and is usually about $20+, but you should be able to locate it with a search engine, as I bought mine that way. Lots of mechanics use it when people are having injector problems, I've heard. After using this, the problem dropped from every 45 miles to about once every two months, or every other tank full.............
Does yours reset like mine if you turn off the car for about fifteen seconds?

[hoosierguy60]

one other thing - make sure when you tighten the gas cap, you hear it click - need to close pressure system and if not will cause problem

another simple solution i hope , anything to save money i say ... thanks for the reply ill check it right after i get off of here ... thanks again ....mike