wacky gas guage

[casiann]

when my wife puts gas in her 06 beetle the guage reads full, but after a few miles it drops down. anyone have any idea what is going on? I'm thinking that she is not tightening the gas cap enough.

[simonsi]

Unless she takes corners like a demon I'd be surprised if it would spill any substantial amount of gas with a loose cap.... but if it is only the first gallon or two that dissappears quick then it does point to a leak high up and so possibly in the fuel filler somewhere, perhaps you need to pull the arch liner to check the underside of the filler area, it is also possible you have a split in the plastic of the filler neck - that would cause the same problem. Either way a gas leak needs finding quick.

Good luck with telling her the loose cap theory :-) you might need to fill up yourself to rule that out first :-)

[Oldbugman]

My gas gauge acts crazy as well, I can fill up drive maybe a few miles and the needle drops like 1 dot on the guage, look at it a few minutes later and it's back on full. This has been going on awhile and it does it over the entire range of the guage not just when it's full. Might be a problem with the guage or sending unit, or something in the wiring. Not sure, I'm too lazy to put the effort into diagnosing it. So I just reset my trip meter everytime I fill up.