Today I ran my truck out of diesel. The guage was showing just under 1/4 tank with no warning light. The warning light usually comes on at about 1/8 tank. What makes me scratch my head is that my wife drove it two weeks ago and ran it out of diesel for the first time. I was just about to finish the tank that she put in it after she ran it dry. Has anyone else heard of or had this problem before? Guess I'll be fillin her up at half tank. BTW...had to put 33.5 gallons in her at $2.09 each.

 

I'd say the sending unit in the tank.

 

Common problem plaguing Dodge's for years.


phox

 

What's the fix? Replace sending unit? Was it damaged due to running out of fuel, or was it coinsidence? Oh well, I was looking for a reason to drop the tank so I could finish my fuel line upgrade.

 

Most likely just coincidence.

Age is the biggest factor, from reading about the failures, seems about 4-5 years.

Filling at the big rig pumps seems to kill them as well, they can't handle the flow.

One guy reported that his float just disintrigated, like Dodge put in a Gas sender instead of a Diesel sender, and the plastic couldn't handle the Diesel.


phox

 

I hate it when that happens...thanks for the help guys!!

 

it was my float that dissolved we just learned the same lesson you did, fuel gauge works half as good as odometer! BTW, diesel is 2.75 here!!!!!!!!!

 

thats crazy,

diesel was 2.05 on the Indiana/Illinois border today, put $40.00 in my baby. In Illinois it was 2.45!!!! Just south of chicago.

oh yea while I was filling up,

a 24 Valve Cummins truck pulled on the other side of the pump, Put my truck to shame, the exhaust sound was truelly amazing, Put me and my truck to shame,

I COULDNT HEAR MY DIESEL ENGINE RUNNING WITH HIS RUNNING! The sound was beautiful...

 

I always fill up at half. It's hard to fill up so often though when fuel is 2.09. I feel for you other guys though.
Eric

 

My first one went out at about 50k my second one went out at just under 100k. Havent fixed it again yet and may never. I just watch the odometer and fill up every 400-500 miles. You just need the sending unit more than likely and not the whole cannister which dodge will probably try to sell you. I am thinking it is $50 vs $400. There have been some threads on fixing it for good with a couple of minor modifications to the unit.

 

i had the same thing happen pulling my trailer across nevada... what really sucked was i had 50 gallons of fuel in my auxillary tank just waiting for the low fuel chime to start transfering fuel. I first thought the vp 44 went out ,,,ihad truck and trailer towed to a rv camp. the next morning i transfered fuel and bled a couple of injectors & got it running
i have since changed the sending unit... no more running out of fuel