Just found forum

[no fool like an old fool]

I'm a newbie to such a group. I'm a 64 year old retiree, who spent over 40 years as a welder and pipe fitter. I have some college and was an apprentice at a large chemical company. Years ago I did some work of autos, mainly helping friends who were drag racers, but that has been too many years to remember much. I've owned Chevy trucks since 1977, before that, a couple of Olds 442s, a Pontiac SJ Grand Prix, a Chevy Nova, and to my dismay an International Scout. I was looking for a forum to discuss tech problems with my present Silverado. It is a 1999 4-wheel drive Silverado Z71 with less than 85,000 miles, it is still on it's second set of tires. It has very good performance( not racy), gets reasonable mileage, and rides great. It has been well maintained, so when they have all these deals, I have yet to find something (much) better to warrant parting with it. It has never been damaged, it is as straight as it was new. I do have one problem though. The fuel gauge has not worked since the warranty expired. I recently learned that GM was doing replacements as long as the mileage was 70,000 are less. I keep up with the miles on the odometer to fill up, it gets a little over 16mpg in town and slightly over 20mpg on the open road. I spoke by phone with a GM rep who offered no help. I want to know if the cause of the fuel gauge is with the tank senser, the gauge, a ground, or the instrument cluster?? If anyone has had this problem and over come it, I would like to hear how you did it. I look forward to having less tech and more of viewing some of your great trucks.

[99'HEARTBEAT]

:sign0016:To the site....:glasses:...It a Great Site,With Great Member's.

[retired2001]

Welcome to the site! Finally, someone born before me! Retirement isn't half bad is it?

[Shorty 71]

Welcome to the forum, alot of knowledge here. I'm sure someone can help you out.

[DIGS16]

welcome to the site... as far as ur problem with the gas gauge it might just be the cluster that has broken on it... i had to deal with that on my truck a few years back along with the speedometer breaking... good luck

[Greg84]

Its probably the sending unit inside the gas tank. Its a pretty common item to go out on the full size trucks. You have to either drop the gas tank or remove the bed to replace it since its located inside the tank. Unfortunately its a fairly expensive part since its an entire module including the fuel pump on the newer trucks, if you go with an aftermarket part it'll be in the 180-200 range just for the part, if you go with a new one from GM they're around 300. It looks like they used 2 different sending units on a '99 with either 1 or 2 plugs on it, so you'll have to do some crawling under your truck to try and figure that one out to get the correct one. Or take it to a shop and let them deal with it!

[s5belford]

welcome to the site!!!

[no fool like an old fool]

Thanks to all for the great welcome, and I will look into the senser as the problem. It's good to hear from people who are so friendly. Thanks Again