I have a 2004 f150 5.4L 4x4 88,000 miles. A while back my fuel guage went to empty and the low fuel light came on. Even though I had a half tank of gas. Since, I have been just keeping track of my milage and fueling up accordingly. It has been 2 months and it has never come off empty!! Truck doesnt run or perform any different. please help!! thx!!

 

From what I know of, this is somewhat of a "known" issue. Unfortunately for you, the solution is going to probably dropping the fuel tank and replacing the sender/fuel pump unit to fix this. My Ford techs tell me it is a pain in the AS* to drop the tank on our trucks too. You might want to have this checked. My understanding is to keep the fuel pump and/or sender from going bad is that you MUST change the fuel filter every 15,000 miles. Thats what i am doing as "preventative maintainence". Even if you did this, however, they can still go bad. I'm praying mine doesnt. Let us know how you make out.

Mr86GT

 

thx for the information! can the sending unit be replaced by itself or do I have to purchase the entire fuel pump?

 

Isn't the fuel filter downstream of the fuel pump and sending unit. Should have no effect on these components. My guage seems to stop at the half mark and never go any lower. After I fill up, it takes about a half hour of driving before it returns to the full mark. I will be making a trip to my dealer soon. I have an 07 KR Screw.

 

for a "known" issue, this is the first time I've heard of it.

I have never had a fuel filter so dirty that it caused a fuel pump failure. heck, 1 truck had 127k with the original filter before I changed it and the OEM spark plugs (I miss that old F-150 with the 300 I-6). wasn't pristine, but certainly worked

if dropping the tank is really a bear (i haven't done it on these new body trucks), maybe you could just lift the bed off? 6 bolts and a cherry picker can work wonders on allowing access to the gas tank

oh yeah, did you do a dummy check? fuses are always the first thing to check

 

I used to own a Toyota and fuel would quit registering regularly, I was told to run a bottle of Chevron fuel inj. cleaner in gas tank when this happened. And the gauge would start working right, the gas you get now messes up sending unit.