I just wanted to share my exuberance with you all, upon learning this morning that the Pontiac dealer finally was able to prove (to themselves) that the wackiness with my car’s fuel gauge is an actual, genuine, for-real problem that needs to be fixed. Lucky me—the warranty’s gone in nine days. But because I now have an open repair order, any repairs they do to correct this problem will be covered, even if it goes past warranty expiration date. Confirmed that with the service manager.

And, it turns out I was right. It is the fuel gauge sending unit. (Or “Fuel Level Sensor,” as the GM tech books refer to it.) Thank God for that warranty, is all I have to say, considering they’re going to have to drop the fuel tank to replace it. That involves removing the rear tires, dismantling the rear suspension and letting it hang, taking apart or temporarily repositioning portions of the exhaust, disconnecting the fuel lines at the charcoal canister, and detaching the actual tank itself. Paying for all that crap by the hour would be an extreme bellyache. But thanks to GM Major Guard, it’s covered. That $1300 I spent on that warranty has FAR, FAR been outweighed by the potential cost of everything I’ve had done in its coverage period, that’s for sure. It was money well spent.

Now my only concern is that they do the actual work correctly—and put it all back together again as it was intended. Because if they don’t, the warranty will be gone by the time any resulting problems crop up. Since the local dealers have had very poor track records with “secondary failures” caused by repairs they’ve done, I’m praying to God that nothing else happens as a result. In fact, I’m hoping that the phantom noise I’ve been hearing from the tail end will be miraculously fixed as well, in the process of their loosening and retightening half the parts back there. But even if that noise sticks around, I don’t care…as long as everything else is put back where it belongs. PLEASE!

Since the fuel level sensor wasn’t a part kept in stock, they had to order it. It’ll be in within the next 3-5 days. In the meantime, I picked up the car and took it back with me. Dropping the fuel tank isn’t going to be a pleasant job for them, though. My service advisor (who is also the assistant service manager and a really great guy—I’m so glad they changed their damn personnel) passed along a message from the technician: “When you bring it back in for the repair, try to bring it in with as little fuel in the tank as possible.” I’ll certainly try, but with the gauge anywhere from 1/8th to 1/4th off in either direction at any given time, I may not be able to risk getting too close, heh heh.