Fuel problem?

[stangman16]

Hello,

I was driving my '05 Mustang to work yesterday and I had half a tank of gas when I left my house (12 mile trip to work). I noticed my fuel gauge read empty and the fuel light was on at a major intersection, about 10 miles into the commute. Well after I started rolling again through the intersection the gauge started to SLOWLY go up until it reached half a tank again by the time I got to work, so about 2 miles later. Well today it did the same thing and I have a full tank of gas, but this time I noticed the check engine light is on (picture of the engine). I'm not sure if it was on the last time, but I have to drive 155 miles after work out of town, tonight at 7pm.

Any idea what could cause the CEL to come on? The car has 34,300 miles and I don't think the fuel filter has been changed, which I was planning to do tomorrow while I was out of town. There's not an autozone nearby my work here so I cannot check what code it's throwing. Has anyone experienced this before? I'm curious if I would be okay to drive that far, especially if the CEL light turns off again when I start it after work...

 

[WhiteFox342]

Sounds like an electrical connection problem at the fuel level sender. I do not know why the check engine light would come on. Is the warranty over? I guess so or you would have taken it to the dealer.

I had a customer bring in a car that the power windows and locks would work erratically. The car only had 23K on it, but they did not want to go to the dealer. I checked it out and found a connector that was barely plugged in. It wasn't fully clipped in. It must have been that way from the factory.

 

[stangman16]

Yeah, the warranty ended last month I believe - I'm going to have to check Monday when the dealer is open. I'll check the connector, I kinda peeked under the car and noticed the pump has a metal housing around it. Where would the connector be located?

 

[WhiteFox342]

I'm not sure on an '05, but it is probably on top of the tank.

 

[klaw]

Yeah, the warranty ended last month I believe - I'm going to have to check Monday when the dealer is open. I'll check the connector, I kinda peeked under the car and noticed the pump has a metal housing around it. Where would the connector be located?

The pump is inside the tank. You can pull out the rear seat and you'll see the fuel pump access cover on the driver's side.

 

[Lifter583]

Toss in a bottle of Techron, the sulfur is building up on your sensor in the tank. I had the same thing happen, now I run a bottle every 1K.

 

[stangman16]

Toss in a bottle of Techron, the sulfur is building up on your sensor in the tank. I had the same thing happen, now I run a bottle every 1K.

Did that, and once it got to the last 1/8 of a tank the CEL turned off. Guess I'll be using techron gas mostly.

 

[greydave]

Fuel Problems?

My 2005 Mustang GT had an eratic reading fuel gage and the check engine light was on. The car was in warrenty by two months an a Ford dealer repaired it per TSB 08/4/17 by replacing 2 fuel sender assemblys P/N 7R3Z*9A299*C and 7R3Z*9275*C. No problems since.

 

[stangman16]

My 2005 Mustang GT had an eratic reading fuel gage and the check engine light was on. The car was in warrenty by two months an a Ford dealer repaired it per TSB 08/4/17 by replacing 2 fuel sender assemblys P/N 7R3Z*9A299*C and 7R3Z*9275*C. No problems since.

Yea, I was out of warranty by about a month. Put the techron fuel cleaner in and noticed a 1-2 mpg increase. Started to only put Chevron gas as well, hopefully I don't have this problem again - I sure don't want to replace the parts myself, even though I'm sure I could.

 

[Lifter583]

Glad it worked!!

 

[stangman16]

Glad it worked!!

Guess I spoke too soon, it acted up again this morning driving to work. Then after work the CEL came on again. I bought an extended warranty with my auto loan, just not sure how those work - I think there might be a deductible, gotta find the paper work. It just sucks this happened a month after the warranty expired..... dang!