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tank full, petrol gauge claims otherwise

2K views 24 replies 11 participants last post by  weebob 
#1 ·
Just had a new upper wishbones, radiator and thermostat fitted by my local indie. On the way back I put about £50 worth of v power in and the petrol gauge is claiming I have less than 1/4 of a tank and the infocentre states about 70miles left.

Now unless i managed to **** £50 worth of fuel on the floor and not notice something is up.

Any ideas?

I have check though the cars history and at some point it has had a recall for a stuck petrol gauge, fixed by mango's.

Thanks in advance
 
G
#9 ·
This happens very rarely on my GTA. After an hour or so after a fillup it can still read very low, then within a few minutes it's reading full. I always reset the trip when I fill up, so if this should happen again at least I'll know roughly when it will be coming up to empty by the mileage. It's strange how the only time this has happened is when I've just filled up - dealer checked this out a couple of years back and found nothing :confused:
 
#10 ·
I've had this happen also. Very weird, carried on driving back from Cornwall and over the course of the next hour or so the needle slowly went up. ??

Hasn't done it since though.
 
#14 ·
Just had a new upper wishbones, radiator and thermostat fitted by my local indie. On the way back I put about £50 worth of v power in and the petrol gauge is claiming I have less than 1/4 of a tank and the infocentre states about 70miles left.
I had petrol gauge problems like that the whole time I was using Shell Optimax.

I always brim the tank, but on Optimax it would never show more than 3/4 on the gauge.

As soon as I stopped using Optimax the gauge worked properly again.
 
#18 ·
my gauge is slightly over cautious, tends to read a little lower than is actually there.
i usually drive 'til the warning light comes on, a few times i have been caught short and had the beep 'limited range' pop up - scares me when it does that, especially in london where there are no pumps for miles and you are stuck in traffic!
 
#19 · (Edited)
Ragged it within a inch of its life and very speed bump I tackled a little quicker than I normally would the fuel gauge would clamb a bit. so fingers crossed its sorted.

Every odd about different types of fuel can cause this. I always use vpower, if it carries on ill change to something else and see what happens.
 
#20 ·
just adding to the issue....
are you making sure all lights on the dash have gone off before cranking the motor (computer has performed the checks)?

i have know a few people whose fuel guage will show the fuel warning light on with little level of fuel displayed. ....it however gives the correct display once the computer has done its work then the car started.

them cars can show a decent difference in reading if the car is not parked level.

Hope it helps
good luck
 
#22 ·
Hi,

I've had this issue quite a few times and it will recover by itself given some time, usually an hour or two.

In South Africa we have people to fill up our cars for us while we sit inside like "lazy sods" :) Anyway I usually get out unlock the fuel filler get back in and write down the kilometer details etc. If I put the key back in the car, and turn the ignition just enough to switch on the computer (done to read the odometer) it reads that there is an empty or quater tank depending on how much petrol has been put in. Somehow it remembers this and does not quickly recover, it takes and hour or two to slowly go back up. Stopping and restarting does not seem to help either. If I pu tthe ignition on at a quater fill level during the filling process it shows quater for quite a while before it recovers as well. Thats why I think the computer rembers the fill level at the "ignition on" stage.

Since I have figured this out, I never put the key back in the ignition untill the tank has been completely filled. I have not had the problem since. BTW I also use Shell V-Power.

Cheers,
Pyrean
 
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