Thanks to the Lexus forum again, I was able to quickly fix the incorrect fuel gauge reading on my 2000 RX300 (93k miles).

I went to a gas station for a fill-up but the gauge would not go beyond the 3/4 mark so I did a word search on the Lexus Owner forum. Past threads suggested removal of the battery terminals so I parked the RX on a flat and level surface, disconnected for a few seconds, reconnected, and sure enough, the gauge went up to the full level. I sure wish the BMW was as simple to work on and maintenance-free as the Lexus.

 

Good to hear. This was a common issue I had in Mexico (because of the gas) and over time since I have returned to Florida the issue has become less of a problem (probably because the American gas has helped clean out the system). Cleaners like Techron and Redline's Fuel System Cleaner did help the issue a bit back in Mexico, but I always seemed to wind up having to disconnect the battery in the end.

 

I'm not clear on what you mean by "because of the gas"? I use only Chevron gasoline and use a bottle of Techron fuel cleaner every 6 months. Are you saying that the impurities in the gasoline is causing the sensor to malfunction or stick?

 

Depending on which part of the world, the gasoline can seep out of the holding tanks and dirt, rain-water, and leach action can add lots of stuff to the gasoline. Some places, the gas station refuses to pump for 1/2 hr when the tanker brings in fresh gas, as the holding tank is agitated. [not looking out for their customers .. but they don't want their lift pumps and filters to go bad].

Salim

 

Salim hit it right on the head

Pemex was the monopoly in Mexico, not even close to Chevron, which is what I use as well.

 

i had a similar issue last week, on my way home to northern virginia from baltimore i noticed my gas gauge going down faster than it should have been, i always keep the average mpg up on the screen, i even reset it so i could measure it from that point on to make sure i wasnt actually burning that fuel and i wasnt, when i got home the gauge was just under the mark to make the gas light come on, came out the next morning to go to work and it had dropped enough that i thought i wasnt going to have enough gas to get to the gas station, i checked the car for a smell of gas to make sure there was no leak and everything was good. I made it to the gas station and threw a quick 5 bucks in it, didnt make a difference, went to work. When I got off work and came back to my car the needle had gone past E. I shouldnt have been able to even start the car if i was accurate so I stopped and threw another 5 bucks in it and by the time i had gotten home it was so far past E that I knew something was wrong. I thought maybe the fuel float had started filling with fuel. The next morning it was a quarter of a tanks worth past E and I put 30 bucks in it which put it at half a tank. It usually takes roughly 60 to fill it so it was accurate at that point. Havent had any issue since. Mines a 99 AWD btw.