Fuel Guage - dodgyness

[JonL]

I dont know if this is a common problem, but it seems that my fuel guage is the most random, inaccurate device on this planet, it keeps bouncing up and down.

e.g.

Got out the car last night, petrol guage was reading just over a quater

Got into the car this morning, petrol guage reading around an 1/8

The car doesnt have a petrol leak, so is this just something i have to live with or is this fixable?

 

[BenR]

mine does it too.....300miles on 1/4 of a tank....next time i get in, there is only 1 1/8 in it!!!

 

[BenR]

mine does it too.....300miles on 1/4 of a tank....next time i get in, there is only 1 1/8 in it!!!

 

[GR7]

Do you park it on a slope?

 

[JonL]

GR - nope, flat (ish) stoney type stuff.

 

[Eddd]

Mine as well. Just never know where it is going to be. Seems to be different each time I start the car. Then it takes a dive from about a half to an eighth. Seems pretty accurate around the bottom which is nice. The reserve light works as well.

 

[Paul16V]

Mines a bit weird too. Sometimes my reserve light comes on just under quarter full, other times a lot lower down. It seems to be worse at the lower end.

 

[madman81]

when you get low on petrol the aux fuel pump moves petrol from the second fuel tank to the main fuel tank
thats why sometimes your empty then a minute later you have almost quarter of a tank, as the fuel level reading is taken form the main tank

 

[Anders]

The gauge on mine seems to somehow show how much fuel I have left if I were to carry on driving as I am.

For example if I had half a tank left when I fire her up, and then ragged the nuts of it the fuel would drop to say 1/4 but then if I got to a dual carriage way and did a steady 60 the needle would rise back up close to 1/2.

What the frik is going on??

 

[coolspot007007]

it should be renamed the dunno guage.

 

[Rob.S]

Try cleaning the electrical connections to the tank gauge sender under the rear seats. It made mine work better!

Ive think many if the electrical problems with 16vs are due to moisture in those plugs. The slow passenger side window is another symptom.

 

[Andy16v]

so what do i clean cos i have a slow passenger side window and dodgey fuel gauge when i gets to last quater then from nowhere it goes to empty, weired!

 

[Rob.S]

Andy,

Lift the back seats and pull the black cover off the hole underneath. Then unplug the fuel tank sender and clean the connections.

 

[Andy16v]

cheers for that mate il give it a try when i can be botherd to try and get the rear seats back out lol also how do u solve the slow passnger side window problem?? cheers andy

 

[Rob.S]

I know a lot of people have the slow passenger window and have tried all kinds of things to fix it so I don’t know if this will work for everyone.

The thing I noticed was that the window went faster if you pressed both switches so I thought maybe it wasn’t the motor but just the connections powering it. I cleaned up the switches (they’re easy to take apart) and connections now the window seems to work much better.

All you have to do is to unscrew the pocket off the inside of the door so you can reach behind and unplug/pop out the switches. Use some electrical contact cleaner on them which you can pick up at any electronics shop. Let me know how it goes!

 

[Ben j]

yeah my gauge picks and chooses under 1/4 tank. anything higher and its fine.

and my passenger window goes up faster if u press the button on that side rather than the drivers on.

 

[Andy16v]

Hmmmmm when u press both buttons on mine both windows go slow and my pass side button only works when it wants to maybe i need a new button

 

[Rob.S]

If you take the switches out of the door and pull the button part off the top its pretty easy to see whats going on inside and if it’s dirty, broken etc.

You could also try swapping the switches over then you’d know for sure the problem was at that end of the circuit.