Hi everyone.  Hope your all doing well.  My wee car has a dodgy fuel gauge.

 

When there is fuel in the car the fuel gauge needle sometimes hits the bottom of empty, light comes on warning sound as well then goes back up again.  Sometimes dancing back and forth when it starts.

 

Ive noticed the trip computer is all over the place ie mpg.  Car is not giving same mpg as it used to ( even with the weird gauge ).  Its not long had full oil change and filter.  Car seems to be running fine other than wheel bearing whining at front and sticking of hand brake cable.  Sometimes if lying feels like its locked on pretty firm.

 

Any ideas would be really appreciated.

 

Car is 05 plate with only 100k.

For sure, the sticking handbrake (and possibly the wheel bearing issues) are not helping your fuel economy. Get those sorted, but I would guess that the change in economy is not down to a fluctuating gauge. I've had the gauge drop to empty, beep and fluctuate for a bit before settling down to where it was before all the Tom-foolery started. I did ask a couple mechanics at work what they thought it could be, but couldn't tell me. 

 

@wino could this be another issue with the soldering cracking on the back of the dash, causing a momentary short or the like?

Your right i think those two things hampering the mpg quite significantly.  The gauge some folks talking about fuel sensor in tank but i reckon it aint because when fuel goes in it goes up ok.  Its just happens after car been running and not all the time but more often than not.

Yep, could well be cracked solder joints where the gauge sender wiring goes onto the cluster circuit board. With a cracked/wibbly joint sometimes it'll work sometimes not.