Hey there guys,
Last night I filled my car up to full ok. I drove around a fair bit but when I had stopped, I had only used 1/8 of a tank. I go to start it back up again and it was below empty and the fuel light was on (I only had the engine off for about 10-15 min. I drove for another 10 min and the gauge went up to the first knoch above empty with the light off. I then drove around for a further 10 min and it went back down to empty with the light on again. For the rest of the night, it continually repeated this process. Today, i got back in the car and the fuel gauge went back up to where it was last night. I took a 5 minute drive to the shop and the gauge went back up to the knoch above half a tank. I drove back home and it went all the way back down to below empty with the light on. I took it for a drive a couple of hrs ago and the gauge seems to be lost. Don't even know what it is doing anymore.
Someone please HELP :eek2:

Might be a problem with the fuel sender. That would first thing I would check.

Yeah i was thinking maybe the sender but how would you check it without buying another one? Because i don't really want to spend all of that money and find out that the sender wasn't the problem.

it would most definately be the fuel sender if it was making any reading at all, the sender will be faulty
by the looks of other threads it is a common thing in 3rd gens

Really not sure you might have to look up the service manual. But from rember it is a variable resistor so if the resistor has a dirty contact or is faulty it would give the weird readings. So take out the sender unit use a multimeter on ohms scale measure resistance. But unsure what vaule will be. Should be in the manual how to remove and check fuel sender :)

To access the fuel sender you need to remove the rear seat cushion and then the plate in the floor. Make sure you keep everything very clean while you do it. There was an issue with some wires in the sender rubbing against the inside of the tank and shorting out. If you take the sender out check the wires for rub marks. If you see any report it to your dealer. It was a known fault and they should repair it for free.

To access the fuel sender you need to remove the rear seat cushion and then the plate in the floor. Make sure you keep everything very clean while you do it. There was an issue with some wires in the sender rubbing against the inside of the tank and shorting out. If you take the sender out check the wires for rub marks. If you see any report it to your dealer. It was a known fault and they should repair it for free.

Electrical wires rubbing inside the tank? Temporary back seat winter heating?!...

3rd Gen Fuel Sender Replacement DIY instructions here: http://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/showthread.php?p=766780#post766780 (I followed this guide when I replaced my '03 TL fuel sender last year. Took me 30mins.)

Thanks for all your help guys. I also wanted to know can you buy senders aftermarket or can you only buy them genuine? Because I don't think there would be much point in buying a used one.

I took the sender out today and tried some ohms readings on it. The workshop manual says the when the float is all the way up it should read 2-5 and mine read about 4 ish so that was ok. But the workshop manual said that the readings should be 106-108 with the float all the way down but the reading mine got was 250 :S . What do you guys think? Do I need a new sender. I thought so but it would be good to have some other opinions. If I do, how much do they usually cost??? Thanks in advance.

Well it stuff by looking at the reading two option buy new from store like repco or supper cheap. Second option take your multimeter to the wrecker and find a newer magna then check the fuel sender before buying it :)

I got it priced at the Mitsubishi parts and service centre on Wednesday. It was $97.00 and they said that they had heaps in stock so I might buy one soon.