The fuel gauge on my 94 Accord is not moving at all upon startup. What are the typical things to check?

 

first off chk the fuse underdash fuse box fuse # 1 , 10 amps..but if temp gauge works than fuse is ok,, they share the same fuse
secondly go back to fuel gauge sending unit,( the plugs has 2 wires black and yell/blue ) ground the yellow/blue wire if gauge goes up to full ,, you got most likely a bad sending unit ,
if it still does not move could be bad wiring. or a bad gauge

now i just noticed something you said IT DOES NOT MOVE UPON START UP does that mean it will start to work after a bit ?? if so after how soon ?

 

The fuel gauge (before 2003) stays in position when you turn off the car. So unless someone drained your gas tank, it's not SUPPOSED to move when you start.

And then, the gauge is VERY heavily filtered. Even when you stop at a gas station, it takes forever to move up to full.

 

jimblake is right. the guage doesnt move when you turn the car off/ on. the onlyway it should move is down,as you burn fuel, and up, after you start the carright after you've filled the tank.

 

Ok. I've been observing this thing for the last couple weeks. Sometimes it works fine all day, then other days it is back and forth. I can be riding for an hour and all of a sudden i notice the needle drop to past empty, then it might go back to the proper level after just a minute or so, sometimes it takes twenty or thirty minutes, or maybe half the day. It even seems that sometimes I can go over a rough road or bumps and and it drops for a while. Does this sound like a grounding problem/bad wire, sendingunit, or tank float? On another problem, I just got my oil changed and I put in 5W-30, I have not clue what type was in there before(remember, I just bought this car), but I bet it was not 5-30. What was a fairly slow oil leak now seems like a major leak and it is losing oil like crazy. I believe it is with the oil pan gasket. My question is, is 5W-30 a thinner oil and would that cause the leak to become really bad? What oil is best for this car and how much should an oil pan gasket repair cost?

 

Well, that's a much better, detailed explanation compared to the top one in the thread. No that's not normal. You should have to test the sender output with a voltmeter, & other troubleshooting to determine bad wires vs. bad sender.

5w-30 is correct for your car, without knowing what part of the world you live in. Maybe 10w-30 is OK depending on how cold itcan get?