ok heres the story lol i was driving on wed the 28th and my check gauges light came on so i new i needed to get some more fuel and i was 2-3 miles from home so i drove home and was just going to get fuel in the morning before work. so i got in my car on Thursday the following day and the fuel gauge showed a little below a 1/4 of a tank and i was like wtf lol. I figured my g/f had used it and put some gas in it so i thought nothing off it. So i drove to work (only 5 miles away) both thurs and fri and sat morning then my g/f and I were on the highway (gauge still at 2 lines above E) no check gauges light on and long story short i ran out of fuel gauge still showed 2 lines above E. so my question is has this ever happened to anyone is this common. im going to take it in to get it looked at but my local dealership is backed up and cant look at it till wed at the earliest. i since have filled up my tank and the gauge seems to be working but i just dont want to find out the hard way again. any help or input is greatly appreciated thanks

oh and its an 05 cavalier sorry thanks

I haven't had a functioning fuel gauge for over 3 years now. It was fiarly common on earlier years, but not sure about an '05. Personally, I would never drive a car low on fuel based only on the gauge reading. I have always paid more attention to how many miles I have driven, than what my fuel gauge has said. I fill my tank back up every 325 miles with normal driving and 350-375 with all highway. Most of the time, that usually leaves me with 1.5-2 gallons of gas still in the tank.

mine is like that too except it will go down to an 1/8th of a tank then the check gauges. only seen it twice but i allways make shure i fill it as soon as it gets that low. i allways wonderd whats wrong but its not a big enough problem to pay the dealership to fix it.

I know this isn't the answer you're looking for, but unless I'm on a long road trip, I never let the tank get much below 1/4 tank.

The obvious reason is just what you went through (unless you need the exercise). The other more important reason is that the gas in the tank is what lubricates the fuel pump. My original fuel pump didn't die until I hit 190K. I think that had a lot to do with it.

if u want to be safe lets say what the 05 probly gets 25-30 some miles per gallon well just say it gets 22 to be safe and watch ur miles it has what 15.2 or so galon tank so at about every 275-300 miles fill it back up till u get time to just drop the tank urself instead of paying the stealership mondo bucks to fix and take ur sending unit out and see if the float for ur fuel level is stick if it is i dont know how to fix it but then ull know the problem

thanks it would be 100 for the dealership to look at as i have an extended warrenty i didnt do the 0 dect. warrenty because it was mondo bucks. so but ya should i try some fuel additives to see if that might help or something maybe fix the sending unit or something i dunno lol

I have a similar issue. I can get almost 300 miles before the guage says 1/2 full but that last 1/2 tank is gone within 100 miles. I used some seafoam thru the tank and that helped a little bit. now it seems to be more stable and consistant till about 1/8th tank. If i dont fill up, that 1/8 tank wont last long. I still get the same milage but the guage seems to reflect a better estimate of whats left. so like everyone else I just watch my miles and never depend on the guage. I keep a stack of gas receipts and and write my milage on each one and figure out the mpg's. Try some seafoam, 1/3-1/3-1/3. shouldnt hurt but might help your situation.



1998 Cavalier 2dr 5 spd 2200 138K miles

When I had my 2000 cavalier in 2000, I had a 1/25 of a tank of fuel reading on the fuel gauge, My car just shut off. I got it towed to the gm dealer, They said I was out of fuel. In which added a few gallons of fuel it fired back up, Then 2 months later Gm issued a recall on the fuel sending unit. Now Ive got 01 cavalier, I never allow the fuel run past 1/25 of a tank, Just keep track of my my miles per tank.