The fuel guage on my 2004 Chrysler Pacifica jumps around
The problem will get worse, to the point that it will leave you stranded, out of gas. The solution is simple but most dealers don't catch it. They try fuel pumps, computer updates, sensors and the problem persists. You can fix this problem yourself and without spending a nickel. Want to know how I know? I've owned two Pacifica's and both have done this. Here's why: The Pacifica has a very unique and poorly designed fuel storage system. It uses what is refered to as a saddle tank. This is so they can use the same tank in both the all wheel drive and the front wheel drive versions. If you look underneath you will see it actually looks like two tanks. The driver side is the fill side and the passenger side is the delivery side. There are actually two fuel pumps, a main pump (pumps gas to the engine) and a equalization pump (pumps fuel from the the fill side to the delivery side of the saddle tank. The problem that you are experiencing carries with it several symptoms; running out of gas when the tank is half full, the gas gauge dropping suddenly at half full, and the inability to pump more gas into the tank without shaking the car back and forth and/or pumping very slowly. This is because of the way the two sending units inside the tank send their signals to the gas gauge and the fact that only when the fill side of the tank is 100% full, can some of the gas flow over the top of the hump to the delivery side tank. You can replace pumps all day long and most likely still have the problem. So what's the fix? It's simple. Underneath the vehicle, inline with the emissions lines going to the gas tank, about middle of the vehicle, there is a small plastic air inlet filter about the size of 50 cent piece mounted to the floor of the vehicle. It is responsible for venting the tanks pressure, allowing fuel to flow into the delivery side tank. It get's full of dirt and debris. Replace it a cost of about $3.50 or just blow it out with compressed air. If you don't want to do it yourself, help those dealers out - point them in the right direction, or else they will be running in circles trying to fix the problem. NOTE: this is only a problem on Pacifica's, not other vehicles. More info on this issue here; http://www.dodgeboard.com/forums/index.php?threads/my-crazy-gas-gauge.6381/