Fuel gauge fault ?????

[macca72]

I own a 2000 P38 4.0.....Recently It ran out of fuel on me with the gauge showing 1/4 tank and the low fuel lite didn't come on.Anybody got any ideas or had similar fault,Sender unit or dash gauge ???

[81stubee]

You car seems to be following my cars problems! :o

Although I actually get "Fuel Gauge Fault" on the message centre. And every now and then I start the car and get an empty tank, then quarter, then returns to normal.

I'm thinking its a bad connection somewhere, just need to find out where.

Stu

[Hoges]

Try a can of EFI cleaner in about 1/2 tank of fuel. It may very well be contamination on the sender causing problems. The EFI cleaner dissolves the deposits on the sender...

[macca72]

Nothing has appeared on the messages.It all appears to work as normal.

It sits for weeks as I work in the Pilbara so the EFI treatment will be a good move.
I will drive it on the trip meter and continue trying to sort itout.
Your info and advice is greatly appreciated,,thanks.

[wayneg]

Any updates on this? Same thing happening to me. Ran out of fuel yesterday ( thankfully outside a service station) and the gauge still showed 1/4 tank. Filled up , gauge showed full, have driven 150k`s and guage has hardly moved off full. Any ideas??

[Hoges]

The LR book indicates that with a full tank it needs to drop about 25L before there's any appreciable movement in the gauge off the "full" mark. I'd agree with that...especially if you fill the tank right up.

[wayneg]

Still no major movement after 180k`s but as my average is 13.5 ltrs per 100k`s at the mo so it could be ok just a glitch, fingers crossed with a 25ltr can full of fuel in the back.

[andrew e]

how much fuel are you putting in when you run out? could there still 1/4 tank in there? you may have a crack in the pickup pipe or the sender unit causing you to suck air when it gets to 1/4.


Andy

[BigJon]

I had to replace the sender in a HSE 4.6 once because of a similar problem.

[rofosixone]

ME TOO, sender went at 240,000kms ish , did the same things above with 1/4 tank showing but ran empty /used speedo for refrence , got new fuel pump with sender ,put inside tank ////
instantly fixed problem ,drove around tasie for 3 weeks the next week after it got fitted , and it still works from 6 years ago till now .

[macca72]

I drove at the weekend starting with less than 1/4 tank,after about 40 km the gauge was showing below1/8 (almost in red )the orange lite came on and still driving.(This was lower on the gauge than the time I ran out and had no lite showing.)

I opened the tank filler cap to vent the tank.When I started again the fuel gauge was back up between 1/8 and 1/4 and no orange lite. I drove home expecting to run out.I didn't,I carry about 10 lits on board just in case....Strange ???????

I did use EFI cleaner when it was suggested a couple of months back.

[wayneg]

I did the WA group Pemberton trip and was not at all confident with the gauge as it seemed very slow to drop and moved down only after stops, so I topped up at every convenient time. After using Redex additive on every fill I now note the guage is responding in the manner I am used to. I have let the tank to below a 1/4 twice so will now wait for the red warning light before my next fill. Now I am wondering if there is a vent that might be blocked as the vacuum when opening the fuel filler cap seems excessive but that might be me being more observant at the mo. Still carrying emergency fuel, as nothing worse than failing to proceed in a Rangie, I dont need to be shouted at " You should have bought a Falcon" again.
Lets hope the assumption that the float might get stuck at its lower range is correct and a fuel system cleaner is all that's required.