Petrol Guage Went Crazy For A Minute

[LatinR33]

Hey just want to see if this has happened to you guys before, I was driving along yesterday and all of a sudden I look at my petrol guage and its on zero!!! This would have been normal if I didnt fill the car up but the day before I put petrol. I drove a bit stayed the same then I got the shit and said stuff this im going to take it home went around a round about and the needle went straight up to full then stayed around there and slowly dropped alil as I was driving to the second line and then stayed that way and everything seemed normal after that. Any idea what would have happened for that time???

[DRD-00F]

either theres a short to your gauge, or the reader do whacky is rooted or blocked... however it works...

the gauge has a rather strong spring in it, so it wont whip up and down like the other gaueges... at max it takes about 30 seconds to go from top to bottom or reverse...

either that, or you lost, then gained a whole lot of fuel

[traum]

Yeah this happened to me a couple of months ago. Was driving along and all of a sudden i look and see my petrol gauge start to drop pretty fast, i thought fark i got a major petrol leak somewhere so i pulled over and it went up to almost full again (where it should be), then it dropped again down to zero and went back up. After that it didn't do it anymore and hasn't done it since. Never worked out what it was but i don't think i have to now as its fine.

I wouldn't worry about it to much but if it keeps happening you might wanna get it checked but i didn't.

Traum

[RB30-POWER]

the sender is usually made from a carbon track that wears out, or atleast gets dead spots (open circuit) and whilst its at that level, it will drop to zero, then as it moves back onto a good part of the track and gets a circuit again, it will read correct.

people that always keep a certain amount of fuel in their car, wear that part of the sender track out first, thats why its easy to tell when you buy a car with plenty of km second hand, tell how much fuel the previous owners used in it, because that is where the guage will read dodgy, if you get my drift.

they can just fail however rather then wear and tear from the needle rubbing against the carbon track.

[ryano]

Do temp gauges have carbon tracks too? My temp gauge sometimes drop's quickly as I come onto boost then goes back to normal as I come off boost. Any Ideas?

[RB30-POWER]

nope, temp guages are ntc type thermistor, nothing to wear out.

could be guage, playing up from the geforce of acceleration, or could be the increased rpm, pumping cold water into the engine quickly, if you had a dud thermostat or something.

what you would need to do is, actually measure the resistance of the sender during said conditions and see if its actually the sender output changing or not.

because the guages are usally thermal, they move slow, even if the senders change quickly, so i would take a punt that you might have guage/cluster issue.

but you would need to check to know for sure.

[ryano]

Cheers man. It seems to be working fine for now so prob just leave it. But atleast I know where to look if it comes back.

[Richo]

My fuel gauge stopped working completely a few months ago.

I was meant to put a new topic up to see if I could find the reason why, but since someone else already did, even better.

Where is the sensor located, is there a part you can change to make it work again?

Cheers

Ric

Edited July 16, 2007 by Richo

[Richo]

Update: I attempted opening the fuel tank on the boot, took all the screws out and as I was pulling out the cover I heard this thing bang inside, and i though oh shit i broke something, afraid to continue damaging whatever it was that made that sound i decided to put all back together and hope for the best I didnt even take the cover off properly to look inside.

And to my surprise when i started the car up again, the gauge was working, hahaha the sender or something most have been caught on the pump assembly and when I tried pulling it out it got unstuck. (I think thats what happened)

Hope this helps anyone with the same problem

Cheers

Ric

[LatinR33]

cool good to see my situation wasnt an isolated incident

[Ash]

Hi,

My R34 is doing this too. Sometimes it reads 100% full, and then other times 100% empty with the light on.

Occasionally it reads the correct amount or somewhere within aprox 1/4 of a tank of what I guess it has.

As I only had the car complianced last week I’m not sure if this problem will go away or not. I’m thinking this happened because the car was very very low for a long time, then for the first time I over filled the car (it clicks every 2 seconds like my old skyline) so I didn't realise until I could see the petrol...

Has anyone found a solution to this problem?

Would it be under my warranty?

Thanks,

Ash.

[nissanskyrice]

My new R34 just did the same thing thismorning. slowly dropped to empty then when i slowed down for a roundabout (yes I actually slow down for them.... most of the time) the needle started moving back up again then as i continued down the road began going down again. So im guessing the sender is at fault as suggested above.

I have 2 questions re the sender.

1. will i be able to tell its faulty by looking at it?

2. where do i get a new one and how much should i be expecting to pay? (or should i say how much does the caryard have to pay since its still under that B.S. 2nd hand car warranty thing.)

[jimmytim]

Mine did the same when I bought my car, went to my mechanic and he had a look in the boot.

I saw him push something that makes a click noise (I was behind him) and all is good after that.

[Ash]

Someone should make a "how to" showing how to fix this =)

Ash.

[Ash]

Hey Guys,

Sorry to dig this topic up, i priced from Nissan, a new fuel sender is $250 if anyone is interested.

Also after a month of it not working my fuel gauge has started working again so im not going to bother.

Ash.

[nissanskyrice]

mine has been working fine since. only ever did it the once.

[DECIM8]

when cold air or hot air flows over a rail it can often send the sensor haywire.. abit strange but happens alot in cars.. just stab and move around everything you can see hanging around with your fuel system and see if it helps..