Fuel Gay-geness

[magnumpi]

Yeah rubbish thread title i know

Basically i was out driving yesterday and i had just under half a tank of fuel, the next time i looked at the gauge it had gone up to almost full which i thought was a bit odd. I stopped and got some fuel anyway, when i restarted it, the needle just kept on going until it can't go any futher.

It's now in this position on a permanant basis wether the ignition is on or off. I've checked the wires under the plate in the boot and all seems presents and correct, Adam suggested a dodgy earth, but where will i find this elusive earth, i pressume it's just a case of tracing the wire back?

Any help mucho appreciated, this is what i'm on about:

[Chris_C]

It stays there when ignition off for definate? That would suggest to me it's a bit more involved. If you know how to take the dash cluster out, have a look between the rev counter and ambient temp gauge plug. There is a wire on that track that is very good at burning out and through the blue pcb-ribbon when the car has an earth fault and that does all kinds of weird stuff to the gauge positions.

[magnumpi]

Yeah alomst certain it doesn't move as it in that position on returning to the car after a 2hr break.
I do indeed know how to get the cluster out so i'll have a look at that tomo and see what i see. I guessed it may well be the cluster itself, just wondered if there was an easy fix

[volvosneverdie]

dude, thais happened on the black GLT, but with the temp gauge during MOT.
I came out the office with a full MOT turned the key and the temp needle was off the scale and the warning light was on.
Hmmmm i thought thats not good.

Many checks and fiddling later, the clever men (cleverer than me anyway) decided that the needle had just 'topped'.
I.e popped past its top position, past the 'stopper' and got stuck. for some reason. (happened a lot on older classics apparently?)

In the end, we popped the clocks, and moved the needle back down under top position by hand and refitted clocks.

On key turn, the needle rised as normall as the car warmed.

PS mine also stayed up when key was off. as it was physically stuck, rather than a 'fault'.


Dunno if this is wahats happened to yours, but I thought it might help.

[volvodspec]

seen it in holland once; fuel gauge was replaced and the problem was solved.

probably same problem as Ben described

[kds19]

i had the very same andit was just the needle stuck

[nvdw]

I came out the office with a full MOT turned the key and the temp needle was off the scale and the warning light was on.

Hey that's familiar:



This one toppled after the car got a severe case of overheating: the radiator decided to dispense of all its precious fluids while I was taking it out for a test drive

Should have seen it coming then, before three long years of maintenance madness ensued. (The head gasket finally gave way one year afterwards)

[magnumpi]

Cool beans.

I'll have a look when this filthy weather decides to not rain continually and see how i get on. Cheers for the ideas guys it would be nice if it's just a case of needing to be put back to it's original position.

[magnumpi]

So i got out there today and took my dash out.

I dismantled the speedo cluster unit and reset the fuel gauge as lightly as i could but felt the spring resistance fighting back. I refittted it bare, i.e out of the casing and checked it. Again it went right off the scale

So i went to the garage and dismantled my old non rev counter speedo and swapped the fuel gauge from that one to the other. Plugged it in and same problem, off the scale it went. So i tried putting the old cluster back in to see if there was a problem with the circuitry. Plugged it in and ....... nothing, the needle didn't move at all but the fuel warning light came on. I KNOW there is at least half a tank in there!

So i put the original fuel gauge back into the rev counter cluster and it went off the scale but not to the same extent. I left the ignition on and went to make a Tea. On returning the needle has dropped to just above half a tank, probably roughly what is in the tank. However when the needle goes up and down it sems to be quite "jolty" in it's movement.

It does however reset and raise to normal now so problem possibly cured.

However i think the spring may have stretched as on empty they sit at different positions, but they gauges do seem to be slightly different. So can anyone tell me is it sitting in roughly the correct position or does it need a little persuasion to get it to the right position?

Original gauge refitted sits here:




The other gauge sits here:

[wouter76]

The gauge on the last foto is exactly where the needle on my 340 sits when the ignition is off.

[Jonofdoom]

The gauge on the last foto is exactly where the needle on my 340 sits when the ignition is off.

Same here.

[magnumpi]

Cheers guys, atleast i know a starting position now then.

However after thinking i'd fixed it, it's gone and done the same again. It's getting boring now and just want it fixed if only i could track down whats wrong with what part

[magnumpi]

Quick bump:

So when i swapped my gauge from my old cluster to the rev counter cluster it didn't read, i.e didn't move and the fuel empty light was on. The thing is i know there is fuel in there and it worked perfectly well in the cluster it came out of. So are some gauges not compatible with different clusters?

One thought i had was to take the rev counter out and swap it with the clock from the original gauges therefore "possibly" sorting the problem if it is cluster related.

If not what earths or other should i be looking at?

Thanks

[Doherty_nova]

WHOA!! i only thought my guage was bad :lol:

mine sits more like the bottom pic that people say is ign off position, but mine sits there whole time...after startin a few secs later the light comes on but hand never moves