Ok, I need some help guys. I was driving my mom's Five Hundred yesterday when I look down and see the guages acting really wierd. I was driving down the highway and the guages read that I was out of gas, going zero MPH with zero RPM . Then, all of a sudden, the guages went back to where they should have been all while I was driving over 50 MPH. It was as if her car had some kind of power surge that did not effect the way the car drove at all.

Has anyone expereinced this? If so, what is it and how do you fix it.

Thanks in advance.

 

had a similar problem with a 2001 'Stang awhile back, came and went on occasion without causing any real trouble. Have a local shop look at your computer and electricals just in case.

 

Moving to 'Other Fords' but will leave a link for a day . . .

 

Is it something that is going to be expensive to fix, or would it be covered under warranty work?

 

It will be covered under warranty.

The wife's 06 GT vert does it when I take turns really harsh. It goes down to less than 1/4 and stays there for a bit. If you park the car, turn it off, and then give it a second, the float usually goes back and when you start it everything is fine.

If you just keep driving, it creeps back to where the fluid level is slowly over time.

It has to do with side loading the float with splashing fuel and putting some shear stress on the slide mechanism.

It most likely won't change anything to have it fixed because the new parts are just new, not different than what's in there now.

 

Mine was a short, I forget where exactly. Didn't cost much of anything.

 

That could be it, but I think a short may be more likely as all 4 guages drop to their bottom postion all at once and then return all at once. I was driving 50 + MPH and my speedomater read zero.

 

OH, I thought it was JUST the fuel.

YES, it most likely is a short, but if everything dies at once, I would say it is a connector. Either way it will be a warranty item. Good news!

 

Similar problem with my wife's old sport track, which started as random glitches ending up getting worse as well as on my Camaro. Hers turned out to be the computer mine was a corroded battery cable. If it is still warrantied it should be covered. My first guess would be a charging problem as that is a common symptom with an alternator problem. Did the radio or ac act up or just the guages, did all the service lights come on too? Any sputtering or stalling? If just guages I would lean towards a ground going to the instrument panel. Otherwise I would check the battery cables for corrosion build up, any junction blocks (if any), even starters believe it or not have caused wierd problems like this before. Computer is another possibility but the others are more than likely than the computer as it is a rarer phenomena but definately a possibility.

 

Thank for all of the feed back everyone. There was no sputtering or A/C issues so hopefully it should be an easy fix for her.