Normal fuel gauge?
- Thread starter jonjo
- Start date
Proghound
Admin Team
It might be worth checking what voltage is in your battery with engine off, and when running to check it's being charged properly, but most likely this is just hills/bends vs. the position of the sensor float in the tank. Considering how long the gauge stays on the Max mark if you brim the tank, it shouldn't be treated as a linear indication of how much fuel you have left anyway. As long as the beeps of doom go off as normal when you reach the reserve level, you're fine.
audifan
A2OC Donor
Also agree it could be a voltage issue, especially affecting the gauge at full. Yes corners and hills can make the gauge read high / low but soon recovers. The clue here is "at idle" perhaps the battery is very low and the alternator struggling or even faulty to maintain a stable gauge power level.
2work
Well Known Member
Evening Jonjo,
If the voltage checks out to be okay then the other possibilities can be either:
1. Instrument cluster fuel gauge stepper motor with intermittent fault
2. Poor resistance at the fuel level sender
3. The loom between number 1 and 2 above being at fault.
VCDS can be used to test the calibration the stepper motors, if the fuel gauge needle stays steady during a calibration check then it’s probably not at fault.
The resistance of the fuel level sensor within the fuel tank can also be checked with VCDS, depending on the readings within the measuring blocks, you might be able to determine which is to blame.
Good muck with this issue and I hope it turns out to be as simple as a weakly charged battery.
Kind regards,
Tom
If the voltage checks out to be okay then the other possibilities can be either:
1. Instrument cluster fuel gauge stepper motor with intermittent fault
2. Poor resistance at the fuel level sender
3. The loom between number 1 and 2 above being at fault.
VCDS can be used to test the calibration the stepper motors, if the fuel gauge needle stays steady during a calibration check then it’s probably not at fault.
The resistance of the fuel level sensor within the fuel tank can also be checked with VCDS, depending on the readings within the measuring blocks, you might be able to determine which is to blame.
Good muck with this issue and I hope it turns out to be as simple as a weakly charged battery.
Kind regards,
Tom
Clackers
Member
I always park my car pointing downhill into the drive, that way I feel rich every morning, as I show more fuel than if I reversed it onto the drive!!!I have found that the gauge shows less when going uphill and vice versa downhill
My experience is that the fuel gauge tends to be affected by the "miles remaining" value. ie The gauge is not a direct representation of where the tank float sits. So if I have driven the car very uneconomically (ie multiple cold starts, hilly terrain, in town, lots of tickover, like I stole it!) for half a tank of fuel such that the gauge is bang on half, and then drive the next 100 miles economically, then the gauge will go up.
So if the op drove spiritedly up a mountain pass and then sat at the top ticking over for 10 minutes, followed by mostly overrun driving going back down the mountain, then the gauge readings shown are what I would expect to see.
So if the op drove spiritedly up a mountain pass and then sat at the top ticking over for 10 minutes, followed by mostly overrun driving going back down the mountain, then the gauge readings shown are what I would expect to see.
PlasticMac
Member
That is logical to me. It would be daft if the miles remaining indicted 100 miles of range, while the gauge indicted very little.
Vorsprung etc.
Mac.
