anyone ever have a leaky sending unit?

fpmesiIII · #1 (**permalink**) 05-22-07, 05:53 PM

just found out that mine is leaking. i guess it is a $400 piece of equipment and 3.5 hours of labor. anyone have problems with theirs?

Dadillac · #2 (**permalink**) 05-22-07, 08:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fpmesiIII

just found out that mine is leaking. i guess it is a $400 piece of equipment and 3.5 hours of labor. anyone have problems with theirs?

Would you care to be a little more specific? There are many "sending units" in the car.

Don

**Ranger** · #3 (**permalink**) 05-22-07, 09:05 PM

I'm with Don. No idea what you are talking about. The only "sending unit" I can think of for that kind of money is the fuel level sensor, but it is inside the tank so you would not know if it was leaking. Besides it does not hold fuel. It is a float system. Fuel pump? Also inside the tank. What is leaking and where?

fpmesiIII · #4 (**permalink**) 05-22-07, 09:38 PM

its near the tank. and it sends fuel from it im assuming. my mechanic told me this.

**Ranger** · #5 (**permalink**) 05-22-07, 11:14 PM

So we have this narrowed down to a fuel leak, right? There is no sending unit "near" the tank. The pump and sending unit for the gauge are inside the tank.

fpmesiIII · #6 (**permalink**) 05-22-07, 11:32 PM

yeah there is a gasoline leak. and i guess whats causing it is the fuel sending unit. never really heard of this before. but apparently my car has one and it is leaking. im gonna get a second opinion, see what they say.

thu · #7 (**permalink**) 05-23-07, 01:23 AM

Is the term "sending unit" the words used by your mechanic? Sounds suspicious to me. A sending unit is commonly referred to as the unit that measures the amount of fuel in the tank. It's the piece of electronics/mechanics that drives the fuel gauge. It doesn't "leak".

If he told you "it's leaking", it's time to find another mechanic. I feel a rip-off coming up.

Dadillac · #8 (**permalink**) 05-23-07, 05:25 PM

An electrical gauge uses a "sending unit" to send the info to the gauge. Example: oil pressure gauges come in two atyles, mechanical, and electric. A mechanical oil pressure gauge uses a piece of tubing to plumb between the oil galley in the block, and the back of the gauge, to read the oil pressure. Good point; a very accurate gauge, bad point; hot oil is plumbed into the interior of the car, and if the tubing fails, it makes a huge mess and a hazard to the occupants of the car. An electrical gauge will have a sending unit at the oil galley on the side of the block. It reads the pressure, sends the info via electric wiring, to the gauge. Much safer this way. I hope this explains to you what a sending unit is. As far as the fuel gauge is concerned, it reads off of the float that is inside the gas tank. The float has a sending unit on it, but I do not believe that it can cause a leak. The entire float/pump assembly may be leaking at its mounting point on the tank, but it should only leak when the tank is pretty much full of gas. If you have a leak, even when the gas tank is less than half full, then your float/pump assembly is not the cause. Now it may be fuel lines, that would make more sense.

Don

**Ranger** · #9 (**permalink**) 05-23-07, 09:31 PM

Either he does not know what he is talking about, he is bullshitting you or you are misunderstanding what he is saying.

obnoxus · #10 (**permalink**) 05-24-07, 12:04 AM

My oil pressure sending unit leaked,,,, but it wasnt $400 !!!!!!!!!!!!!