Gas gauge frozen

I haven't driven it much since Saturday and so I didn't pay much attention to the gauge not moving. On the way to work this morning the gas light comes on, but the needle is still reading half a tank. So I stop and put $20 in and needle doesn't move.

I've been trying to do some reading about it, but not sure if what I've read have answered what I was looking for. I called the local Toyota and they want $167 for the sending unit, if that even turns out to be the problem.

So my question is, are there any particular things I can look for to try and fix it, or do I need to just pony up and buy the sending unit and attempt to replace it myself?

 

I have had that symptom on a few vehicles, the sending unit had been the culprit in all of them.

 

The only thing I can think of is that the needle is stuck which you can just maybe onpen the dash and play with. Or If these trucks use a float in the tank to measure maybe it is stuck.

 

I've seen some posts talking about the float, but couldn't really find a definitive answer if the truck uses one or not. Not sure how I would go about unsticking it if that happens to be the case.

How hard of a job am I looking at to replace the sender unit?

 

Well, this might have something to do with it.

 

You left the part about slamming into a rock out of your list of symptoms

 

Honestly, it never even crossed my mind until I crawled under and saw it. Gauge didn't freeze until like 2 days after this had happened. I'm going to drive it the way it is for now, and call a local junkyard and try to get a new tank for it.