Thread: TD5 Fuel Tank can't fill more than 65 litres

Air block somewhere? I put 93L in mine last time...;(

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could be gauge error.....

try this....

grab 2 jerries of diesel ready to go, some jerries or a 60L drum and a decent drain funnel + some hosing.

run the tank down till your on the warning light then remove the fuel filters hot wire the fuel pump and pump the tank to dry. dump in the 2 jerries of diesel then go fill it up.

once you burn down the excess put the fuel you recovered back into the tank.

if you put in about 50L with the 40l of diesel from the jerries you know its gauge error.

Warning light comes on about the same place for me too, and if I full up then I get maybe 70 litres in.

I recently found myself in a situation to test the full size of the fuel tank, and the guage just kept going way past empty, by quite a bit, and it did indeed take 89L or so to fill it up again.

Its an amber warning light to tell you the fuel quantity is getting low, not that the tank is empty.

Its a gauge / sender error, if we filled up when our light came on we would only get about 45L in

must look at that some time....

Hay Ewe

The warning light indicates that there is approximately 11L left in the tank. Usable capacity is supposedly 95L so in theory you should be able to put 84L in once the you get to that point.

This is probably a problem with the sender on the fuel pump. The wire holding the float needs to be bent up properly.

Even when correctly set, the fuel gauge is not linear. My V8 goes about 100km from full before the needle moves, and at half a tank the needle sits one graduation above half way.

Empty is spot-on however, and when the light comes on, it's time to find a servo, quickly! I can get another 30km from memory.

As a mate told me after I ran out of petrol, it's just as easy filling up on half a tank, as on empty. It also saves the fuel pump.

My 99 TD5 appears to have changed its low fuel light calibration a couple of times. When I bought it, it was good for 200km once the light came on. I had cause to remove the fuel pump, after which the light wouldn't come on at all and 1/8 on the gauge was EMPTY in reality. Now the light is coming on with roughly 150km left.

No idea what is causing the chance in calibration

When you are filling the tank, do you brim it ? I usually find room for another 20 liters after the first nozzle click due to foaming (If I have the spare 10 minutes to finish it off slowly)

Could brimming the tank be root of the problem? According to RAVE the tank has a safety mechanism to prevent fuel escaping in case of a roll over. The filler mechanism is designed to cut off the nozzle at a point where a 10% air space remains to allow the safety to function.

Brimming the tank means that the safety air space is filled and the fuel level float is pushed above it's intended maximum point. The odds are fairly good that the wire arm attached to the float is being bent upwards, which would mean that the fuel gauge is under reading the remaining fuel in the tank.