Hey guys,

So this has been bothering me for a while but its like as if my car loses gas while its off... I know it doesnt make much sense but lets say I get home, the needle will be at a certain spot. When I get back in the car say a few hours later it will often be significantly lower...

Is there any way gas is evaporating or something? During the winter I noticed it smelt of gas sometimes but ever since it has warmed up it doesnt smell anymore...

Any ideas?

 

it happens to me too, but after i drive a while it goes back up

 

maybe u have a leak in your fuel lines... have u checked your lines?

 

i think it has something to do with the fuel pump. doesn't it empty up after you turn the car off?

 

Probably has something to do with the pump and the heating/cooling gas. Things expand with heat. Mine moves around quite a bit, to the point where if the light comes on I can just turn it off, and restart it with a quarter tank!

 

Yeah it seems pretty weird. As far as leak in the fuel lines do you mean it would actually be leaking gas? Because there are no spills or anything. How would I go about checking them?

 

Fuel level senders are not perfect. They can be rather inaccurate. It's normal for them to read differently after the car sits for a bit.

 

the sending unit in a4's is especially ghey too... you could always park the car and let it idle for awhile to make sure you dont get a puddle, but its most like what dragons saying.

 

When gasoline becomes hotter, it will expand. That is why it is a good rule of thumb to fill your tank when your car is warmed up. If you top off with it cold, there is no room for expansion of the fuel. If you don't see gas leaking out of your car from anywhere, then it's just the gasoline itself expanding and contracting, along with the ghetto *** sender. I'm not sure about this, but maybe a clean fuel filter might help out the gauge reading?

 

No sir: http://blogs.edmunds.com/strategies/...-gasoline.html