05TorchS197

Hi all,

So, a bit of backstory first. About a month and a half ago, I was involved in a wreck where a lady ran a red light and hit my 2005 4.0 on the rear, driver's quarter panel. About $4,800 from her insurance later, my car is looking good as new and I have it back from the shop. There is only one remaining problem. My fuel gauge is not reading properly. It greatly overestimates the amount of fuel in the tank. The fuel gauge is not erratic or working, then not working, like what I've read thus far when doing some research. Basically, it's just consistently "over reading" what is actually in the tank. The fuel is pumping to the engine fine, as far as I know, but I'm just unsure exactly where to go to from here. Do I replace the whole fuel pump assembly or just the fuel level sensor or what? Any help offered would be greatly appreciated.

PS. I'm not taking it back to the shop, not because they didn't do a phenomenal job with it, but because I don't feel like dealing with insurance any longer for something like this. I'd rather do it myself.

kevinmalec

The 2005 4.0's are notorious for having cluster gauge issues, which causes the gauges to read inaccurately. My fuel gauge, RPM gauge and Temp gauges are all going out. They work off and on intermittently and get stuck all the time. I have to track my fuel by keeping track of my miles. I realized my sensor gauge stopped working, cause I ran out of gas and sputtered into a neighborhood. The only gauge that is working properly is the speedometer. I drive through speed zones, which show the MPH and mine still matches up. There are companies that can fix the whole cluster.
I hope this helps.

05TorchS197

I appreciate the help. I read they have a ton of electrical issues with the fuel gauge/instrument cluster. I don't believe it's that due to the circumstances surrounding the issue and the fact that it's not erratic. It just consistently overreads the level of fuel in the tank.

Derf00

Dude, where have you been? I haven't seen you post in a while.

To the OP, was the fuel pump or sending unit ever replaced? If the vehicle was hit hard enough, something in the sending unit could've been bent. If you've ever seen them, the floating mechanism is usually a small guage wire with a floater that could easily get damaged with little force. When you got hit, the momentum from the fuel getting jolted from the hit could easily bend that sending arm.

05TorchS197

Derf00,

I was talking with a buddy of mine and he believes the same thing that you wrote. It sounds fairly logical to me. I ordered a new fuel sending unit off CarParts.com (motorcraft part), so we'll see if it fixes the issue. Hopefully it does. I'll post with an update on Saturday or Sunday.

05TorchS197

So, on Saturday (12/10/16) I replaced the primary fuel level sending unit (under rear driver's side seat) and unfortunately I do not believe that that fixed the issue. I'm somewhat leaning to the side that it may be a cluster issue now at this point, even though I'm still unsure of how a wreck could cause that. The problem started immediately after my car was struck, so I'm still thinking it may be related to the tank or where I was struck. I'm gonna keep digging and continue to post updates as I go along. If any of you have any further ideas, feel free to post! Thanks!

Derf00

Was there any damage to the tank itself or the straps that hold it? Is the fuel pump skewed in any way?

05TorchS197

That's the thing, there's no way there was damage to the tank. The farthest "in" the other vehicle went was it dented my driver's side muffler ever so slightly. It's at least another 6" to get anywhere near the tank. When replacing the fuel pump, we did observe, what looked like, a small orange foam cone sitting in the bottom of the tank. We're wondering if maybe the force of the hit knocked something loose inside the tank itself? We're honestly not 100% sure. No wiring appears to be pinched either, but we'd have to drop the tank completely to double check all that. The only real damage was to the wheel and outer driver's quarter panel skin, which was replaced.

Secondary problem we discovered...the solid rear axle (non-adjustable) is now off spec from the hit because it was essentially directly onto my wheel. I'm getting the stock specifications from a dealership in my area to compare where the specifications are supposed to be as to where they are currently.

Camber - Left: (-.2) Right: (-.2)
Toe - Left: (.17) Right (-.47)
Thrust Angle: (.32)

These are the only two remaining issues that are left to deal with.

bl817

id bet the farm that your stock panhard bar is bent and possibly one or more of the rear control arms. if they are all stock then for sure the rubber in them is probably shot. the impact accelerated this. I would get back under the rear and check your PHB and upper and lower control arms. if however you got hit with enough force to bend the rear diff tubing then that's a whole different issue. good luck

05TorchS197

I will get check out both and let you know what I find.

Btw - does anyone know what the stock alignment specifications should be for the rear of this car? I know it's not adjustable from the factory, but I just want to make sure it's not out of spec since the hit. Thanks!