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Gas Gauge 2000 Buick Park Ave

7K views 14 replies 6 participants last post by  cameronloc 
#1 ·
The gas gauge hand on my Buick is stuck to the left of the little stop peg at the empty side. How in H did it jump the peg or what caused it to do this, and how do you correct it? I'm puzzled I've never run into anything like this.
 
#2 ·
Possible voltage spike from jump start or changing battery with key on. Or other battery issues? Anyways, You can take a small piece of wire and go through the trip reset button hole and pull it back around. Or pull the cluster then remove front plastic and turn gauge back. Should be all good then. Good luck
 
#3 ·
My speedo don't have any access hole

Rexnfx said:
Possible voltage spike from jump start or changing battery with key on. Or other battery issues? Anyways, You can take a small piece of wire and go through the trip reset button hole and pull it back around. Or pull the cluster then remove front plastic and turn gauge back. Should be all good then. Good luck
 
#5 ·
This one just has the peg on the empty side and it looks like it could do a 360. Haven't had a chance to dig into it, just hoping someone might have had the same problem.

poncho62 said:
I dont know the layout of that gauge, but could it have gone all the way around?........I know on the older GMs, if the sending unit loses its ground, the gauge will read way past full.
 
#8 ·
There is a TSB on this, Rexnfx has given you the GM solution. It's caused by reconnecting the battery under certain conditions, I don't remember exactly what they are/were at the moment, but it really doesn't matter, nothing is broke, just needs to be moved back to the normal range and life will be good, :thumbup:
 
#9 ·
I too, always like to find the reason for failure. There is always a cause/effect scenario. But it can be a little harder to do when not dealing with mechanical things like engines or transmissions. Or a direct short or open.

If you wanted to dig deeper. You could hook up up a scanner and make sure the fuel level sensor data is showing a % amount of fuel that you think is in the tank. And not showing some other weird number.

Unless you want to learn the path of electricity and how the analog sender signal is converted to digital info for the BCM and PCM (because it needs info for EVAP system) then back to analog for the gauge. It can get a little overwhelming:) I'm not even sure if its converted back and forth like that. But it is converted to a digital signal somewhere for the computer to use as an input for other systems.

Its kind of like, when you get an freeze up or blue screen of death on the PC. There is an anomaly with the electricity flow. But pin pointing is another story. Usually, you just reset the computer and its good again. Unless there is a hard fault.
 
#10 ·
Just how do you move it back to normal? It is to the left of the peg and could not go clockwise if it wanted too.
Has it went totally clockwise and stopped against the peg? Thanks


Rickracer said:
There is a TSB on this, Rexnfx has given you the GM solution. It's caused by reconnecting the battery under certain conditions, I don't remember exactly what they are/were at the moment, but it really doesn't matter, nothing is broke, just needs to be moved back to the normal range and life will be good, :thumbup:
 
#11 ·
Insturment cluster

Here is an easy fix.Get a large speaker magnet.Hold it to the affected gauge and pull the needle past center.It takes a number of tries but a cheap fix and you do not have to pull the cluster.

Also if you glue some fabric to the back of the speaker magnet you will not scratch your plastic.
 
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