Another crazy fuel gauge.

The other day I was driving my van and found the driver side windscreen washer wasn't working. I stopped and reached around under the dash to make sure the hose was attached. Of course it was or the passenger side wouldn't have worked.

I digress ..

After the arm under the dash, the fuel gauge, which was working perfectly now reads at least double, maybe a bit more.

I fumbled under the dash and wiggled wires on the gauge but to no avail.

Any ideas?

 

If you filled up at Tescos, did they have a two for one offer?

 

Bad earth

 

Thanks for that, I'll check tomorrow.

 

Voltage stabiliser? If it jumped from 5.2v (IIRC) to 12-14v would it read double and a bit?

 

If it's that, I recommend Snotty's version of the stabiliser - 5.6v I think but his is adjustable.

 

I expect wiring - working - stuck arm under dash - not working?

 

Hate those dash clips. More precisely the left side ones.
But over-reading fuel gauge is more annoying so I'll have to put up with them.

 

More a knocked-off-wiring issue, I'd think.

 

I'd be a little bit sad if it's broken, it's original and the gauge read perfectly. Not much original left on my bus, most of it arrived in cardboard boxes. lol

 

Yes it would be nice to keep the functioning OG bits. Not a luxury that was on offer to me as everything mechanical and electrical on my ex-Soweto taxi was shagged out. When I made the loom I made the wires to the dash cluster a bit longer so that the pod could come out more easily without pulling wires off. When I swapped the speedo the other day I was glad of my foresight

 

I think it's PO's that make the wiring too short, mine's fine. People add Earth's and do stuff under there without removing the instrument cluster, or they route the loom incorrectly through the tree of ventilation and heater controls.

 

It sounds like the gauge regulator earthing has gone..like it needs cleaning up, squeezing back under the bolt that holds it down, and retightening.
You touched it, it fell off..

Commence waffle.


If it's a Zener diode based regulator and the Zener diode has popped , that could also cause the issue., or a bimetallic version with a burnt out heater.
[The bimetallic strip regulator would have a little screw thread sticking out covered in paint for adjustment. ]

A new 5.6v Zener diode could be fitted externally on the output to ground, if the regulator measures a few tens of ohms across the terminals.
Not so for the pulsing type, they connect 12 volts direct until the heating effect on a bimetallic strip causes the contacts to open. Those will pop a Zener.
Or strip out the guts of the regulator and fit a LM317 and a couple of resistors to provide 5.6 volts.


I managed to remove and replace my regulator by touch and using a phone camera for checking ..

 

Well I won't be doing it that way!

 

So.. I took out the instrumnts, wiggled wiring and all that. No change.
Brimmed it - reads full exactly.
Must have fixed itself somewhere after I noticed and added 20L just in case.
Who knows?
Fixed the windscreen washer too.

 

And here's me thinking you'd lost the knack - top man ...
NOW...
About those t-shirts ??

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

 

Mine always read wrong….and then I put a new ignition switch in and now it’s fine.

 

Must have disturbed something doing the switch and put it back better. Sure it wasn't cause the neighbour painted front door

 

No idea, but can you come round and do ours please, we have 3 vehicles and I like the sound of double fuel.