Dodgy fuel light

[Andyman]

I put ten quids worth of Shell's finest in yesterday and did about 10 to 15 miles maximum. Went out at night and after turning the engine off and back on again the low fuel light was on !!

No way have i used anywhere near a tenner's worth of petrol even tho the petrol gauge had dipped quite a large amount.

The same thing happened a couple of weeks back but after a few ignition off and on's it went out.

Any idea's why the light comes on and how i can sort it ?

Could it be a lamber sensor problem?


cheers

 

[John D]

Were you parked on a slope? I believe that can have the effect of tipping fuel away from the sensor, making it appear there is less fuel in the tank

 

[Andyman]

Not really no cos it was when i was driving too. I started the car up about 5 times last night and it was still on.

Havent tried the car today yet.

 

[Andyman]

anyone ?

 

[Griff]

Depends how much fuel there was in the car before you added the tenners worth.

Lets say for arguments sake the car was running on fumes, you then added £10 worth and did 15 or so miles then it's pheasable that the light could be on again.

 

[cK]

Is the needle still on like quarter of a tank but the red petrol light is on?

 

[oneeighttwo]

I cant answer your question what it is but iv had something similar where iv had the needle on half a tank a few times before and the petrol light come on. I carried on driving and the needle seem to be right but the light stayed on. Filled up once empty as usual and the light went out. Odd !!

 

[DynamiqueDebz]

Sounds like a dodgy sensor to me too, as going through £10's worth of petrol doing no more than 15 miles just isn't right, unless of course you are ragging the s**t out of her.

 

[cK]

I've had the problem before quite a bit on my old 172 mk1 when id fill her up, get down to about 1/4 of a tank on the needle and the red light would come on.

I just went by the needle not the red light.

When filling up again it cleared the error and didn't return for ages.

 

[edde]

You need to fill the tank and do some testing.

 

[Blue4Ever]

My petrol light doesn't come on at all.

 

[Andyman]

It is strange cos i went on a long run the day before and only used 20 quids worth and a average of 39mpg.

Mate was saying last night that the petrol light coming or sticking on is a common problem with Clio Willy's.

I do have a habit of waiting till the light comes on before filling up so maybe its some dirt trapped or something. I only ever use Optimax.

Done about 20 miles now with the light still on and the gauge has never budged between red and the 1st marker.

I changed the front lambdor sensor last night. The wire was sitting right up to the manifold (no signs of melting tho) so dont know if heat from it could have triggered something