Faulty Fuel Gauge

domestic_goddess

My Fuel gauge has suddenly developed a fault, It dances about all over the place when I am driving.
The car is over 10 years old and is a Ford Mondeo. Ever since I got it I have never put more than twenty pounds worth of petrol in at a time but yesterday I put thirty pounds in and aboutten minutes after that it started.

Does anyone know how much it could cost to fix and what the problem may be?

Also is this not linked to any other problems, Am I still ok to drive the car?

Thanks

chrisw

A float in the tank moves up and down against a resistor which alters the reading on the guage. If you never normally fill it that full, the resistor may have become dirty or corroded above a certain level. You may find it reads correctly once you get down to £20 worth of fuel in the tank.

My wife's Peugeot has had a swinging petrol guage for a couple of years now - she just fills the tank to the brim and resets the trip meter knowing she can get a maximum of about 400 miles from the tankful.

We haven't bothered getting it repaired as the float assembly is all part of the pump in the tank and I suspect it will be mighty expensive.

It's certainly safe to drive, although it might be worth keeping a fuel can in the boot.

hm71_2

I have a k11 micra 53 plate it is showing that i need fuel , gauge is at empty- fuel light is on & teh digital display is showing a large petrol pump & saying re-fuel asap. i have put petrol in but with no change wondered if anyone had any ideas as to what may be the cause. many thanks

Rossy.

hm71 wrote: »

I have a k11 micra 53 plate it is showing that i need fuel , gauge is at empty- fuel light is on & teh digital display is showing a large petrol pump & saying re-fuel asap. i have put petrol in but with no change wondered if anyone had any ideas as to what may be the cause. many thanks

How much fuel did you put in?

£10 might not take you out of the reserve, but if you've filled the tank to the brim i'd be taking it to a mechanic

Radsteral

well.. reading is soooo helpful.. not full of money but i always fill the tank in full.. the petrol tank gauge is playing up.. the lpg tank digital gauge is playing up... now i know the cause ;_)

Mark_Hewitt

domestic_goddess wrote: »

My Fuel gauge has suddenly developed a fault, It dances about all over the place when I am driving.
The car is over 10 years old and is a Ford Mondeo. Ever since I got it I have never put more than twenty pounds worth of petrol in at a time but yesterday I put thirty pounds in and aboutten minutes after that it started.

Does anyone know how much it could cost to fix and what the problem may be?

Also is this not linked to any other problems, Am I still ok to drive the car?

Thanks

I would try brimming it. It might unstick the gauge. And if it doesn't then you'll have to just reset the trip every time and make sure you don't drive more than a set distance before you brim it again!

cyclonebri1

Nearly 4 years on, the op should have it sorted;););)

hm71_2

Mark_Hewitt wrote: »

I would try brimming it. It might unstick the gauge. And if it doesn't then you'll have to just reset the trip every time and make sure you don't drive more than a set distance before you brim it again!

sorry would this help with my faulty gauge as well??? i assume brim it means fill it up?

esmerobbo

hm71 wrote: »

sorry would this help with my faulty gauge as well??? i assume brim it means fill it up?

You would not have to fill it up but book says Micra holds 42 litres. If you stick 20 in it should read around half.
If not try as suggested brim it
If it still reads empty then you probably have a fault in the sender unit.

cyclonebri1

Ok assuming this has new interest I'll come back in here.

If you have a dicky fuel guage the 1st rule is to carry a gallon can of fuel in the boot, (assuming it's a petrol engine, if it's diesel don't even dream of running out of fuel).

Assuming a little nous the guage can be checked by disconnecting the sender connectors, and then touching them together, if this gives an empty then full reading the guage is fine.

anewman

This used to be a common feature on the Skoda Favorit. You could have more and less petrol depending on which corner you was taking. As far as I can understand the issue was the design of the instrument panel so they did it from new. I put a dash panel from a later model in and it didn't swing around any more.