Dancing petrol gauge

[ollieDavies]

My fuel gauge dances around like anything sometimes, at other times behaves itself. Kinda twitchy in a way that would suggest it's not petrol slushing about between the tanks. Anyone else have the same problem?

[gsx600]

Thought they all did that ! Mine certainly do on the 350 and 400, about as reliable as chocolate teapot!

I think it's something to do with the sensor in the tank, probably only in one tank and as the petrol may slosh from one tank to the other probably causes havoc with the readings

[cuneus]

They all do that Sir

[bhardy]

The all do that indeed!!

[ollieDavies]

So I shouldn't spend my weekend dismantling the dash and fuel tank to investigate?!

[gsx600]

I wouldn't, just remember to fill up every 100 or so miles wether you think you need to or not !

Did get nearly 200 miles once and gauge was still bouncing around between half and empty.

[bobfrance]

The fuel guages on my previous two wedges were always completely steady. I was somewhat suprised when I aquired my third one to find the guage dancing around.

So from my point of view, they don't all do that and mine won't be doing it for long as it annoys me too much.

I'll let you know the fix as soon as I have it.

Bob.

[grahamw48]

Haha - ALL my gauges dance about.

Sometimes I think it would be better just to cover them all up, and enjoy the scenery outside.

[wedg1e]

The sender is usually in the offside (r/h) tank and the guages have very little 'damping' (as it's known) to prevent the needles swinging about. So yes, as the fuel sloshes around, the float bobs about and so does the guage.
If you feel like taking the sender out, first you will need Hands Like A Paedophile (tm). Then you'll need the Viz Profanisaurus in order to ensure an ample supply of Rude Words. If you have a wife, advise her to visit her mother's for a couple of days. If you haven't, leave it that way - but that's another story...

Ian

[kevsmev]

Had the sender out of my early 2.8 to replace a leaking gasket a short time ago. Access with a screwdriver was so awkward, I replaced the slotted head screws with hex head screws. Much easier.
Kev

[350zwelgje]

Found out that as long as the needle moves around, I have over 10 litres left (accurate enough for me). Together with trip meter gives me enough time to look at the scenary and decide what part of the horizon I would like to attack at full throttle.

Rob

[adam quantrill]

I used to go round a sweeping left hander on the A14 as I approached Ipswich with the needle on empty. If it twiched, I knew I had enough to get there without lifting, if not, I backed off to 70 to conserve juice and made sure I hit the Asda straight away.

One time I actually ran out of gas on the off-ramp to the Asda. As the handbrake was "a little worn" I had to leave it in gear, and then the bugger got stuck in 4th when I restarted. It sill pulled away, though. Ah, happy times.

[nads]

Bob,
Have you found a cure yet?
I had one wedge with a dancing needle and one without. Can't figure out why.
Nads

[ollieDavies]

No, but I reckon if there's a way to increase the damping in the gauge it would solve it. I suspect that petrol slooshes around in much the same way in all cars but most have dampened gauges. Are there specialists out there who can do that?

[geddy]

dancing petrol gauge? you lot are lucky. My gauge shows full when I've filled up and then drops to zero after less than 50 miles and stays on zero until I fill up again. It's done that since I bought the car 13 years ago and I've just learned to live with it .

[bobfrance]

nads said:

Bob, Have you found a cure yet? I had one wedge with a dancing needle and one without. Can't figure out why. Nads

Not looked at it yet Nads - Tweaking up other bits first.

I beleive the problem is in the damping on the float in the tank and not on the needle.
Either a litlle more weight on the arm or maybe a little less buoyancy in the float may do it.

I'll let you all know how I get on when I get round to it.

[SLB]

I thought you probably could sort it electronically, by say putting a nice big capacitor or resistor in the circuit to "damp" the signal. Not being particularly electronically minded I never bothered in case I blew something up.

A few years ago there was electronics boffin in the Car club who put a resistor across the alternator on his S. This gave a slight load which meant the ignition light went out straight away rather than having to blip the throttle to get the thing to start charging.

[nads]

geddy said:

dancing petrol gauge? you lot are lucky. My gauge shows full when I've filled up and then drops to zero after less than 50 miles and stays on zero until I fill up again. It's done that since I bought the car 13 years ago and I've just learned to live with it .

Ahhh,
interesting. This is exactly what my old wedge started doing. It used to be fine (fluctuate a bit but not more than 10%) but once I filled it pretty close to the brim (being curious about how much it really held)and after that I had exactly the situation you mention. I would get a max reading which quickly danced around zero after 50 miles or so. I ended up filling up after every 100 miles or so (bit of a pain to keep track of without a resetting button on the speedo). Don't know if it was just chance or filling it to the brim which provoked the problem.
My new Taz is fine (but I only ever 3/4 fill it - just in case.)

[chunder]

geddy said:

dancing petrol gauge? you lot are lucky. My gauge shows full when I've filled up and then drops to zero after less than 50 miles and stays on zero until I fill up again. It's done that since I bought the car 13 years ago and I've just learned to live with it .

Mine does the same - I finally realised the gauge was correct and that was the amount of fuel I was getting through