Hi Guys, so I’m looking into a problem with my 91 Camaro RS. It has the 3.1 V6 engine. There are two problems. The first, the fuel gauge is constantly stuck a bit past full. Found this out the hardway on the highway. I was instructed to try disconnecting the connector towards the top of the tank on the rear of the back seat and ground it. We also found this weird device that looked like it was partially broken. it appears to run to the fuel system so I’m thinking it could be related. I just don’t have a clue what it is. I’d replace it if it’s broken and i knew what it was. The second problem I’ve run into is there’s a definite fuel smell coming from that area. I’m taking a pretty hard guess and saying it’s coming from the top of the tank or sending unit because there are no leaky lines or any other noticable leaks. I was reading on 3rdgen.org about a possible recall regarding 91 camaro RS’s about that very thing
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body/332472-gas-tank-recall-read.html
I looked on NHTSA website and was told “an error occurred with your request. General Motors LLC does not recognize your VIN. Please contact General Motors LLC by email at info@gm.com for recall information about your vehicle.”
I’ve included a picture of the odd device I’ve found. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks guys!.
Odd device is part of the crankcase vapor recovery system. I think it should be clipped in that bracket with the round hole.
If you smell fuel, the tank must come out. Likely the pump assembly itself has a rusted pinhole. The level sender and pump can be bought as a unit, I believe. Rockauto is a good source to at least see what is available. Make sure there is a good ground for the sender.
yeah I wanted to make sure there wasn’t a recall so I didn’t have to do the hard work lmao but yeah I know dropping that will be a quite a long day.
Figuring out the cause of fuel odor is the most important problem, that’s a safety issue. For the non-working fuel gauge, those gadgets are usually just a variable resistor. There’s a circuit that measures the resistance using a precision reference voltage , and that corresponds to the fuel level displayed. You should be able to disconnect the sensor (near the fuel tank probably) and measure its resistance using a DVM. You’ll have to do a little web-research to see if the measured resistance matches the fuel level or not. If it does match, then the problem isn’t the sensor, but something from the sensor connector to the gauge; i.e. wiring harness shorted to chassis, incorrect reference voltage, or some other circuit fault. If the sensor’s resistance is incorrect for the fuel level, you’ll have to replace the sensor, which probably means replacing the fuel pump.
