Fuel tank/Gas gauge

[Rexsname]

Last August I went to California with my brother to drive the Dusy-Ershim trail. While on this trail I dented my fuel tank skid plate (and probably the tank). I removed the skid plate and pounded it right. The tank looked Ok with just a slight wrinkle in the side, maybe 3/4" of deformation in the outboard lower corner.

The gas gauge will stop reading the level at 1/2 tank. It will stay at 1/2 tank until the low fuel light comes on with about a gallon remaining.

How should I go about fixing this problem? Is it likely a bad sending unit? Might I need a new tank?

REX

 

[corax]

I don't have a whole lot of experience with Tacomas to know the common problems, but the fuel level sending unit is easy enough to check (provided you can get to it) - remove the sending unit and check the resistance with a DVOM between the 2 level gauge wires on the unit - the resistance should change smoothly as you move the float . . . if resistance changes till you get to a certain spot and then just stops, you know it is the sensor. look at teh little "fingers" that ride on the "rainbow/arch looking thing" (yeah, I'm getting very technical here - probably called a variable resistive strip or some-such) and make sure they aren't broken or losing contact

 

[ntsqd]

If you can get to the sender I would pull it up out of the tank and either leave it connected or re-connect it's electrical. Ground the sender body and have a helper watch what the gauge does while moving the float arm through it's range of motion.

My guess is that an internal baffle got moved enough to inhibit the float arm's lower range, but the above test will tell you if the problem is in the sender or in the tank.