Faulty Fuel Gauge

[raybythelake]

My fuel gauge in my 2002 S40 just went bonkers. It is stuck at the 3/4 full mark and does not move as I drive and consume fuel. I can limp along for now by watching my elapsed miles and conservatively calculating my fuel consumption so I don't go empty without warning. Of course, it's much better to fix this. Assuming the sender in the tank is at fault, how easy is it to pull out the old and install a replacement?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[alschnertz]

Though it would make sense, I'm not sure you can purchase the sender separately from the pump assembly.

Regardless, It's easy to change the pump / sender assembly. I did it twice on my 2001. Just have the fuel level below half when you do it.

If you elect to change it, I would not recommend ProParts. I replaced my pump and sender as a preventative measure when they had about 12 years and 180,000 miles IIRC. The ProParts part was significantly less expensive than the factory part so I went with that. It worked fine for 8 months then the pump quit.
I replaced that cheap ProParts unit for a factory part. I will NEVER use any ProParts item again.

[raybythelake]

Thanks, Al. I appreciate your sharing your experience with installing and then being disappointed by a cheaper part. I've fallen victim to this on more than one occasion so I now do as you suggest and get the factory part unless an aftermarket one is from a known manufacturer like Mann, etc.

Ray

[cbburtraw]

I always go with the best reputation fuel pump units (or factory) since a faulty fuel pump is the ONLY thing that has ever left me stranded in a daily driver and there's no way to do a patch on the side of the road...

Anyways, I'm fairly sure there's an access panel underneath the trunk carpeting, so it's probably not too hard to do.

(I wish every car had these... I had to drop the tank in my last car.)