Thread: Petrol guage going crazy

Hi Glen
the sender is usually the problem. It's attached to the pump. It can get "gunk" on it which plays up with the variable resistor... hence unpredictable readings on the gauge.

I had this problem a couple of years ago... as a quick fix, I put a couple of cans of fuel injection cleaner in the tank on a long trip (BNE-SYD) and it eventually cleared... maybe worth a try

cheers


PS: Do you have a Faultmate? If so, you can test the gauge: In the BECM mode (IIRC) Faultmate allows you to "force" the gauge to "full" and "empty" ..

I had a problem just after I got the car. Ran out of fuel when the gauge read 1/4. As Hoges did I took advice on using Injector cleaner in the fuel and no more issues. I dont think its that uncommon if you do a bit of searching. I must admit I lost faith then and its never completely returned, I never let the tank get lower than 1/4 without reserves at hand.

Fuel gauge fault ?????

Mine does the same. It happened before the fuel-pump conked out on me, so I've had the fuel sender out. I tried to clean mine up, but I think it just physically wears out. I can tell you it's not the petrol gauge as I swopped mine out for new oem green background gauges and the result is the same odd and the no reading at all.

Btw, if you decide to remove the fuel pump to get at the sender, make sure you stir the tank up good and pump out all the fuel and have a new fuel filter as you'll stir a heap of dirt in the tank

Hi,
I had the same issue with my beast and I kept running out of fuel.

I ended up taking the fuel tank out and removing the variable resistor (fuel sender) and cleaning it by hand with some WD40. I also bent the prongs for the sender contacts in a bit so they made good contact with the potentiometer.

Seems to work fine now, although Im cautious about letting it get too empty.

Originally Posted by rhinoP38

Hi,
I had the same issue with my beast and I kept running out of fuel.

I ended up taking the fuel tank out and removing the variable resistor (fuel sender) and cleaning it by hand with some WD40. I also bent the prongs for the sender contacts in a bit so they made good contact with the potentiometer.

Seems to work fine now, although Im cautious about letting it get too empty.

I tried that too and made mine worse

I found that E10 can have an adverse effect on the fuel sender also. Don't use E10 anymore due to that reason plus more.

There was a TSB issued a few years ago on exactly that point warning not to use ethanol blends as they cause problems with the resistance of the sender unit...