1998 Ranger Gas Guage Reading Normally?

[PNW Ranger]

I have a 1998 Ranger XL with the supercab. The brochure says the gas tank is 19.5 gallons. So, after driving 208 miles, the gas gauge reads about 1/10 full. It took 14.8 gallons to fill up the tank.

Without doing any kind of advanced algebra, it seems like the gas gauge is calibrated to help keep me from running out of gas. Is this normal?

 

[RonD]

Regular cab has 16.5gal tank, extended cab or Long bed has 19.5gal tank

Fairly normal
Should be 1 to 2gal left when on EMPTY, the float should NOT be able to touch the bottom of the tank when installed correctly, so float will show empty when there is about 1" of fuel remaining

The float in the tank is on an arm so will not be linear, it will be slow to move off full and then be slow to go to empty
Gauge is linear, so it should move from 3/4 down to 1/4 as fuel is consumed in a normal manner
But between full and 3/4 it will be slower, and between 1/4 and empty

All vehicles are like this, haven't you ever done the "Kramer drive"
Episode of Seinfeld, Kramer goes for a test drive in a used car and sees "how far he can go on empty"

 

[55trucker]

When the tank is truly near next to empty the *Check Gauge* dash lamp to the left of the tach will light up.

 

[RonD]

Carry a 2gal gas can
Set the trip odometer when needle is on Empty
And Drive baby, drive

 

[scotts90ranger]

yeah, that... on my '97 when I had a non tach cluster the gas gauge was huge so I could tell better and it read different once I put a tach cluster in it, but I also gained a check gauges light that tells me that I'm within like 3 gallons of being empty... and on this thing the check gauges light comes on at around 400 miles and around 18 gallons give or take (21-24mpg on average), I'm pretty sure I've put 19.9 gallons in it before... I could have sworn it was 21 gallons when I looked up the capacity.

 

[superj]

My gauge goes from 1/4 to the light coming on in 30ish miles. So weird compared to the rest of the sweep on the gauge but I know that one I hit 1/4 tank left, stop at the next station. From the light being on, it's 15-16 gallons till full

 

[ericbphoto]

When the tank is truly near next to empty the *Check Gauge* dash lamp to the left of the tach will light up.


View attachment 75700

I've never seen that light.

 

[ericbphoto]

Carry a 2gal gas can
Set the trip odometer when needle is on Empty
And Drive baby, drive

Make sure the 2 gallon gas can is full pf gas.

 

[Sloryd66]

I've never seen that light.

Neither have I lol. I have roll up windows and manual locks. Figured I had the basest of the base edition and a low fuel light wasn’t offered on my 99.

 

[55trucker]

I've never seen that light.

Really? I'm an avid *run it 'till it's almost empty* before I fill the tank so I see that lamp quite often. The sender has always delivered a *low* cluster gauge reading so when the tank level gets down to near 1/8 the gauge needle sort of stops, I just wait for the lamp to come on before running to the gas station.

*drives the wife crazy, she gets paranoid that the truck is going run out of fuel

 

[PNW Ranger]

Thanks for the replies. I can see I'm in good company on this forum....