2001 Chevrolet Silverado Repair Question
Mileage: No information provided.
2001 Chevy Silverado Fuel gage problem
2001 Chevy Silverado V8 Two Wheel Drive Automatic 127,00 miles
I have a 2001 Silverado with 5.3 V-8 and automatic transmission. When I let the vehicle idle for approximately 2 minutes with the transmission in the Park position, the gas gauge pegs at "Empty" and the low fuel light comes on in the dash. However, when I put the transmission in any gear other than Park the gas gauge functions accurately at all RPM ranges, even at extended idle and the "Low Fuel" Light goes off. Any Ideas what might be causing this?
Asked by jhonky333Answer
THis is a good one. Without being there the only thing I can think of is the body control module (BCM). The float in the tank sends a signal to the BCM which then sends the signal to the gauge. I would have that checked.
I have a 2000 3/4 ton with the 6.0 where I ran into the same problem from the day I bought it. At times, when I stepped on the brake pedal, the gas guage would go to "E" and say low fuel even when it was full. In fact, the guage would always do it when the tank was above 3/4's full or below 1/4 tank. Several other chevy owner's I talked with said that they had similar problems with the fuel guage reading correctly. The problem came from the the rheostat (variable resistor) on the fuel pump/sending unit's float arm (basically the fuel pump assembly). I replaced the sending unit assembly and it cured the problem (2 years without a problem now).
From people I talk to, they said that the OEM sending unit in the truck was bad from the factory and those model years saw this problem commonly occur.
I had this same problem with my 01. Weird as it sounds it was the ignition switch which has a lbig wiring harness that controls a lot on the dash.