Fuel gauge problem

[RyanPJ]

Thread dig!

Just had this issue on our second NP - still relatively new to us. It stalled several times but Mrs El_Freddo managed to get it to our driveway for me to check out once home. I had that sinking feeling that it’s the dreaded diesel injection pump issue.

Turned out to be no fuel - even though the gauge was below 1/4 but higher than 1/8th. I added 40L of diesel, the gauge came up and the NP ran as it always has since we got it on the road.

I was surprised it still started even though it was out of fuel, it didn’t want to idle at times but with some foot in the throttle it would rev and hold fine - not that I did that for long.

Now to look into the trick AndreJ talks about above. This NP sat for some time with a low tank before we got it going again, so I suspect that’s part of the cause of this issue.

Cheers

Bennie

My friend's incoming Pajero project is also having an intermittent fuel gauge issue. We'll just finish the shocks and brake kit from 4Wheelonline onto the pick-up truck this week before we start working on the Pajero.

[El_Freddo]

need to solder the back of the fuel gauge search youtube fir the method, its very easy

Yeah I’m not sold that this is the issue. The gauge functions properly other than dropping lower than that point between 1/4 and 1/8 of a tank. Done it twice now and no change. It displays the correct tank level above this fuel level which makes me think it’s a sender issue.

RyanPJ - sounds good!

Cheers

Bennie

[erad]

Freddo: You may be on to the correct diagnosis. The sender unit it simply a variable resistor which is wiped by the end of a float arm. The resistor part is probably a printed circuit board and maybe the wiper arm has worn through the circuitry. I had this problem in my wife's Magna which ran most of the time on LPG, and therefore the fuel tank level rarely changed. The fuel gauge eventually went silly at the long-term reading.

[El_Freddo]

Well I pulled the fuel sender unit last week and manually moved the float up and down while placing a small amount of pressure on the little arm that runs along the resistor/resistance track bit. No visual sign of corrosion but it did feel like there was less spring pressure on the arm across that range of movement.

Manual test of the sender unit showed the gauge level drop below where it previously got stuck - and now we have the fuel light kick in. We’re yet to see the fuel light while driving around as we had to fill up before we hit that low level. All in good time...

AndreJ - Thanks for the how to description, made it a simple operation that avoided the head scratching as I nutted it out!

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

So I still have the gauge issue. Worked that out pretty quick this morning when cresting a small hill half way to work. Managed to limp into a servo near work and fill up. 88L (I’m a sucker for filling up so will have to wait for the fuel level to drop again before removing the sender unit to play with again).

Does anyone know if the petrol sender unit is the same as the diesel unit (I feel that it would be)? I’m thinking it could be a good idea to swap them over, or I’ll end up playing with it again, maybe bend it so it shows lower than it actually is. I couldn’t see anything it would foul against in the bottom of the tank (looked very clean in there which is good).

Cheers

Bennie