Hundreds left stranded after fuel-gauge failures

Terra Stribling was in the fast lane on the Snyder Freeway when her Mercury Mountaineer suddenly began to lose power. "When I went to accelerate, nothing happened," said Stribling, 24. "I looked at all my gauges and everything looked great."

But the gas gauge, showing about an eighth of a tank, lied. The sport utility vehicle was running on fumes, and when Stribling slowed below 30 miles per hour, the engine died, power steering disappeared and she was soon stranded on the side of the road.

Like hundreds of other Louisville motorists in recent days, Stribling ran out of gas. As though paying almost $2 per gallon wasn't bad enough, fuel-tank sensors have been failing throughout Louisville on different makes and years of cars burning different brands of gasoline. Drivers have been learning they're out of gas the hard way — sputtering to a halt.

No one knows for sure what is causing the problem, but it appears to be something in the gasoline, said Roger Boyd, spokesman for AAA Kentucky, which began getting complaints last week.
http://courier-journal.com/localnews/2004/05/18ky/A1-gas0518-6393.html

I bet it turns out to be a prank of some sort.

cool link thanks

1/4 tank left on the guage..ran out of Gas downtown...I was PISSED...Sensor was bad...Now i fill the tank and watch miles until i can get it in to get warranty service. The ordered the part and it came but haven't been able to get the truck in...Seems a Rampant problem and i would say it's the part, not the Gas..Probably the same shitty Chinese made part that has a bad design on most of the newer cars...

It's a systemic failure affecting 3 areas of the Eastern US Seaboard and it's affecting salesmen and houswives alike: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1622779

On Edit: Maybe four. I just read the above comment from Alaska.