Gas gauge needle is tweakin'

[traveno]

Hey everyone, first post!

My car's gas gauge likes to twitch for a few seconds on start up, then functions normally. Sometimes it gives me a wild reading like past the full mark when I know the tank is low on gas. This is the only needle with this problem.

I've thought maybe it would be the tank level sensor, but I don't know why it would make the needle twitch like that. Any ideas?

Here's a video of the symptom...
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Bnfy8YW41s2u9z6R1jaebWlW1-oQkAPY/view?usp=sharing

[thstone]

It looks to me like the needle starts out slightly above "0" and then goes below "0" and starts bouncing off the lower limit stop (like its repeatedly trying to go lower than Empty but can't, so it bounces up a bit and then is driven back down). After doing this for a bit, the needle moves back above 0 for a moment and then moves to the correct level.

My guess is that the sending unit isn't working properly at power-on.

[traveno]

Hmm, okay. I suppose I'll pick up a replacement tank level sensor and see where that gets me. I think your suspicion is right. Keeping my fingers crossed.