Fuel Sensor Question

Well, wife is driving the truck today and calls me with a simple "hey, there's an orange light that came on, on the dash. It looks like a motor. And, the gas gauge is showing empty." Can't really elaborate the rest of the conversation, as I tried to get her to pull over. Quick background - She almost blew up one of old Land Rovers because she decided to drive home another 5 or 6 miles after a belt broke.

So, quick research says the fuel sensor (on the side of the fuel pump, inside the tank) is bad. I guess my question is (and I haven't made any calls yet), do you guys think that is covered under the powertrain warranty and should be replaced by the dealer, or is this something I'm going to have to either do myself, or take it in and have it replaced at a shop?

2014 1500 Big Horn - 76k miles. I'm still within my 5 yr, 100k mile powertrain warranty. Truck was purchased Dec 2014, so I should have about 8-9 months left.

As far as I know it's a 3yr/36K mile covered item. Seems all too common to have them fail on later model Rams. Dealer fix is to replace the whole FSU. Big bucks at a dealer.

Id try, worse case, see several dealers. We have several in Tulsa, try Southpointe maybe first?

I'm going to make some calls to the dealers that I usually go to first and see what they say. I have the part number for the sensor. May go ahead and price out the fuel pump as well for parts since I'm at 76k miles. If I'm going to be in there (possibly), I might as well replace all of it (depending on parts cost, of course).

Just found a bunch of threads on this that I didn't realize before I posted.

Mods - if you want to take it down, feel free.

The repair will be covered under the basic warranty only. Mine went out at sixty something thousand miles. I made a thread about it the engine section. I can tune the code out in the pcm so my BLD will work even if the stupid code was set. The sensor lasted a few months before it completely died and the fuel needle was always pegged at empty. My local dealer wanted $1200 to do the job which included getting a new pump even though you can replace only the filter.

I bought the sensor for about $120 if I recall and made an appointment with my local repair shop. Once the fuel tank was out and they had the pump in hand they recommended to replace the hole pump as they told me it wouldn’t make sense to change just the filter out as the pump had some miles already and the labor was going to be same, i told them to go ahead and they ordered a new Mopar replacement and I only had to wait 30min or so more for their delivery guy to drop it at the shop. $360 for the pump and $120 labor. Screw the stealer they always want to reap you a new one. I returned the filter I bought and I have a brand new pump that hopefully the filter won’t go bad in another 60k miles

I think it's easier to pull the bed on the truck as opposed to dropping the tank. You have to get into the top of the tank anyway.

So, just wanted to give a quick update. I haven't had the truck looked at, yet. The issue persisted for 3 or 4, maybe 5 tanks of gas. But since then, I've ran 4 or 5 fill ups and the problem went away. I'm not sure if it was brand of fuel related, but there were a few fill ups during the time of the issue that I was getting gas at a different station, just out of convenience. I've since gone back to my normal *** & Go station and the problem has gone away. I still reset my trip counter each tank, just in case. I guess if it comes back, I'll have it looked at. But, for now, I'm in the clear.

15 Handicap said:

I think it's easier to pull the bed on the truck as opposed to dropping the tank. You have to get into the top of the tank anyway.

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Uh. Not really. Assuming the tank is empty it's silly easy to drop. I've done a handful of them without even a lift.

EagleChief said:

So, just wanted to give a quick update. I haven't had the truck looked at, yet. The issue persisted for 3 or 4, maybe 5 tanks of gas. But since then, I've ran 4 or 5 fill ups and the problem went away. I'm not sure if it was brand of fuel related, but there were a few fill ups during the time of the issue that I was getting gas at a different station, just out of convenience. I've since gone back to my normal *** & Go station and the problem has gone away. I still reset my trip counter each tank, just in case. I guess if it comes back, I'll have it looked at. But, for now, I'm in the clear.

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I highly doubt your in the clear. The fuel sensor code will come back again. Your just seeing the start of the problem, for now.
I know this because i`ve been thru it already, just like you. Had this happen to my 2014, fuel sensor eventually failed.
I had 65,000K on the truck, dealer got it covered under emissions warranty for me, and paid nothing to get it fixed.

FCA is aware of this fuel sensor issue too! I do believe there IS a dealer service alert about it. (my dealer gave me a copy of it, but i didnt need it anymore, and threw it out)
When it lights up your check engine lite again, tell your dealer it can be covered if your not out of (emission/drivetrain) warranty yet.

You might have to call FCA and ***** to them about it.

Squeaky wheel gets the grease!

Yea, I'm sure it will come back again. I'm just waiting to see how long it will take. I wasn't aware of the emission warranty - hadn't thought of that one. So far, the service guy that I've worked with at my local dealer has been pretty good at taking care of me. We'll see how this deal goes when it's time.

I'm about to hit 80k miles. Wonder if I can just take it in and get the manifold bolts replaced and that sensor taken care of at the same time?

EagleChief said:

Yea, I'm sure it will come back again. I'm just waiting to see how long it will take. I wasn't aware of the emission warranty - hadn't thought of that one. So far, the service guy that I've worked with at my local dealer has been pretty good at taking care of me. We'll see how this deal goes when it's time.

I'm about to hit 80k miles. Wonder if I can just take it in and get the manifold bolts replaced and that sensor taken care of at the same time?

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All you can do is hope your dealer will go the extra mile for you and take care of ALL of it under warranty.
Friend of mine just had his 2014 manifold bolts taken care of under the powertrain warranty. No charge!

I think your emission`s warranty is 80,000 miles. But you may want to confirm that with FCA or the dealer.

Well, I knew I spoke too soon. DOH!

Coming to work this morning, it came back.

Aces and 8s said:

Uh. Not really. Assuming the tank is empty it's silly easy to drop. I've done a handful of them without even a lift.

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You know what they say about assume. Took me 1hr and my son and I lifted the bed off. Not tryin to argue just sayin.

Yea except I wasn't assuming anything other than making sure a tank wasn't full lol. I can drop the gas tank in less than 20 minutes.

Finally got around to getting a quote from the dealer. Not covered under warranty, obviously. $1081 to replace the fuel pump. Calls for 3.8 hrs of labor at roughly $500, then $449 for the pump.

Thinking I'll just buy a new pump and gather some help to do it myself.

Any recommendations as to which brand to buy, or where? I've looked at RockAuto, Advanced Auto, O'Reilly's - they are all about $250-$300+ for a new pump.

Oreallys is $294, Mopar is $295 (5145594AA)

I bought the sensor separate from the pump for 150. Took me less than an hour to replace

At first, I thought I'd stay with the Mopar, but if the sensor is going to go out again, I would rather go with something else. But, who knows how long the next one will last, no matter what brand it is.

I like the cost of just replacing the sensor, but with almost 82k miles, and I'm already pulling the fuel pump out, I figure I might as well replace the whole thing.

Thanks for the info, guys. I've just been keeping track of my mileage. The only thing that having this issue really hinders, is my auto-start. So, I'm not in a huge hurry to swap it out.

The sensor will continue to do the up/down dance for a couple of months more or less based on what mine did, then it'll completely die and the needle will be pegged down in empty.

Gather all the info you need/want and how you want to address it. I watched my mechanic doing the job and it seemed fairly easy. If you look underneath the fuel tank is held by 2 metal straps, literally 2 or 4 bolts if i remember, but the hoses and eletrical hookups don't thave all the slack in the world so you have to manouver the tank (dude simply used a couple of ratched straps to hold the tank in place) to disconnect the fittings and all the other stuff.
From what i remember there are 3-4 fittings/connectors you have to unhook above the tank to release it and that's it. I guess some sort of motorcycle jack can help hold the fuel tank (try to run the sucker up as empyy as you can, i took my truck with literally 1.5 gallons left) My mechanic was doing this on a a shop lift and they have pretty much access to anything needed to make the job even easier. like i said in my case they only charged me $120 for the job, and $360 for the part which is just $65 more than Mopar online list price.
Perhaps i could do this on my own but in this case i don't mind paying the $120 since it's saving me the shouting and cursing i do every time i have to use a wrench

Good luck.

Had to look this thread up to see how long it's been. Almost 2-1/2 years!!! Sheesh! I FINALLY got my fuel pump replaced! I ended up having an old friend of mine do it. He has his own mechanic shop. Dropped it off to him Wednesday evening, I picked it up Thursday evening after work. My fuel gauge is working again, and I get my remote start back just in time for cold weather!