Need some help figuring out where to start troubleshooting the wife's 01 Tahoe

[John Wright]

01 Tahoe 5.3 w/ 178K miles on it

Fuel gage is acting up. All other gages are fine. Fuel gage works fine until you completely fill the tank, then it shines the low fuel light and the gage reads empty. After a mile or so the gage will move back towards the full mark and the light goes out. Not sure if it's sloshing or not, but then after a while the light comes back on and the gage reads empty...seems random, with the exception of filling to full(happens everytime we fill it all the way up).

Before I drop the tank, is there anything I can check first? I'm dreading trying to get that tank out from under that thing, only to find it's the gage cluster or something.

Once I pull the tank, should I replace the fuel pump and everything?

[John Wright]

Would this gage be a 0-90 ohm sweep like previous chevys that we've owned through the years?

[Six_Shooter]

IIRC there's a ground under the driver's seat that affects this.

[John Wright]

Thanks...I will check that out tonight. That may explain some other things that I didn't think were fuel tank related...dash lights (all of them) sometime will blink for no apparent reason. Radio or something in the dash sounds like it has a fan on/in it that runs randomly even when the motor is off and no keys in the iginition. I pulled the fuse to the radio and the amp draw fell off to almost nothing....so I think that fan noise is associated with the radio/dash somehow.

[EC_Tune]

Running some Chevron Techron fuel additive will usually fix the issue *if* there is sulphur buildup on the fuel gauge sending unit in the tank.

If not, you will probably have to replace the sender. Not a fun job on a Tahoe because you have to drop the tank to do it.

[John Wright]

^^^^hey that is good to know. Thanks for chiming in.