WM Statesman - "Contact Dealer" and "X Service" and Empty fuel gauge issues

[selimlok]

Hi All,
I am new to this forum so I may ask some silly questions!

Firstly before I provide details regarding the issues I am having, I want you all to know that I have a Mid 2008 model Statesman which I have converted to LPG and put on as a cab in Sydney. I bought it second hand at 34000kms.
Wonderful car and love driving it... but I have had a couple of little drammas in the past couple of weeks since i boutght it with warning indicators coming on the dash:

1- Since converting it to LPG, the "check engine" indicator has come on. I took it back to the LPG guys who converted it and they had reset and re-mapped the computer.
This had happened a couple of times and apparently because it is a new system it tends to run a little rich or lean untill the LPG system runs in properly with the computer.
No issue with that and the boys look after to me well.

2- Yesterday I had filled the fuel tank to full as well as the LPG tank. When the car starts, it starts on fuel and switches to LPG once you take off.
When I was on the highway, my fuel tank gauge had suddenly dropped to empty.
I then turned the car off and turned it back on and then a warning indicator had come on which showed a big X and "contact dealer" written on the bottom of it.
Then a few seconds later the dash screen goes to normal but the "X Service" indicator is still highlighted on the bottom of the dash screen!

I had disconneted the battery and reconnected it but for some reason it does not go away.
The car is now on 38000kms and i am assuming it needs a service... but it does not show a reason why the fuel gauge will be on empty... even though the tank is full.

I had aslo run the car on petrol only... as I have the option to swith between LPG and petrol but this hadnt seemed to solve the problem of the fuel gauge nor the "X Service" indicator.

Can anybody shed some light on the issues I am having above.

Thanks

 

[Silver Streak]

Hi there, is the engine running rough, when the engine liight is on , I had the same problem when I went on to liquid injection. it was caused by one of the injectors having petrol and gas at the same time and it had a miss which smoothed out as the revs increased.

 

[Silver Streak]

I have only just had time to have a play and put a picture of my car on my profile

 

[selimlok]

Hi
No car does not run rough at all.
The engine light is off for now and maybe comes on once a day.
Please note, the car gets driven about 500kms per day because it is a cab.

Also the petrol gauge is back to normal and the contact dealer warning has turned off.

Everything does run smooth and even though the warning lights do sometimes come on... Car is running perfect.

I have spoken to other cabbie that have the same car and they say that these cars are too sensitive and warning symbols are always going on and off.

Also the other day my middle screen in the dash was flickering. So half of it went blank and then appeared again.
Not sure what went on there but it seems weird.

Once I hit about 70000kms I am going to take it back to Holden and point out all the faults.

Cheers

 

[Irfan]

Hey,
I just bought a VE commodore MY08 and I'm also facing a similar issue. I got "X Contact dealer" message after driving around 30 kms, then after a short while I got Check engine message and my fuel gauge is showing empty as well. The car drives pretty smooth with out any issues though. I took to a mechanic, but he couldn't diagnose the actual cause of this and he cleared those messages. But they came back when I drove for almost 30 km. Is it ok to drive with it or better to fix it. Mechanic is saying that Check engine is coming only because of the empty fuel gauge reading and it should be ok to drive around. It's my first car in Australia and I'm pretty worried about this. Any suggestions on how to approach this problem? or is it ok to drive with it? Any help is much appreciated.

 

[1_johnboy]

you need to have the codes read, to see what the actual issue is and then go from there. You can get and elm327 and smartphone app for $20. They are a must have on new cars

 

[xtremebase]

Hi Guys

I have been having the same issue with my HSV VE E3 Clubby for the last 4 years and the Holden dealership had 4 attempts to fix this issue over the 4 year period,Changed sender unit 3 times and 4th time gave up on my car..and costing money ...
After getting the X CONTACT DEALER message yesterday and fuel gauge dropping to empty, I Decided enough is enough and did extensive fault finding myself.(HV Sparky by trade)I cut inspection plate holes over my fuel tank so that I could gain access to fuel pump sender 1 and secondary sender 2 since I had to get the fuel pump changed a week ago and had to fork out $1200 .As most of you would know they have to drop the tank to get to the pump. Now that wont be an issue for me ever again and I can change it myself. Have a look at Pic showing modification.Note to all ,Never run your tank to empty,that is to the "Very low mark".I did it 3 times in the last 2 months and it killed the pump.
After gaining access to the fuel sender I tested the resistance on the sender 1 and 2 unit.1=55 ohms and 2 =155 ohms at half a tank.I filled up the tank to full and tested again 1 =39.8 ohms and sender 2= 39.1 ohms which is correct and proved the senders were working correctly.Just remember sensor no 2 sits higher in the second tank and drops first and after round about little more than half a tank reaching about 120 ohm reading sender 1 will start increasing from 40 and go up till 250 empty. Full equals both senders be at 40 ohms each and empty equals both senders be at 250 ohms each,I then proceeded to test the brown yellow stripe wire (Earth at sender to ECM which should read 0-0.3 ohms) I read 326 ohms which is incorrect.
That meant I either had a bad earth in the harness or bad connection to ECM or lastly a bad ECM internal low reference earth.
I then proceeded to remove the ECM which was a mission of its own.Tested Pin 31 internal ECM earth and pin 73 main ECM earth incomer and found 0.1 ohms which is correct. ECM OK.
That meant it had to be the harness and i tested from the front ECM plug pin 31 to the back of the fuel sender tank pin BrownYell and confirmed and found 327 ohms resistance which should be 0.1-0.3 ohms.I also tested sender 1 sensor purple wire and sender sensor 2 light Blue wire which read 0.2 ohms .They were OK ,It was the damn Brown/yellow (earth) from the back to the front of the ECM that was the issue.I then proceeded to connect a tone generator to trace the harness going through the car .I then found another PLUG .
There is a big clamped white plug behind the driver side RH foot kick panel.I put my tester back to the brown/yellow wire testing the continuity of the wire and the resistance dropped to 20 ohms. I noticed when I touched the plug the reading jumped all over the show.FOUND IT!!!()*%Holden Dealer&$^%#&.
I un-clipped the latch (black latch) and removed the plug.I then also un-clipped the back of the mounted plug and put them together while not mounted in the car, it clipped in and I tested again.The reading was 0.2 ohm (Brown.Yellow)I reinstalled the plug into its mount and smacked it a few times while checking resistance.ALL GOOD .Put my car back together and started the beast and PRESTO!.Problem solved. My tank showing over full and computer reading on dash saying 71 litres remaining,WOW, I haven't seen the gauge reading full for about 4 years and the reading saying 71 litres remaining.Took it for a ride and man it feels it strange seeing the gauge reading correctly after such a long time.

Well guys there you go ,I hope this helps if you are having the same problem as I did.Fuel always showed wrong and never full,every now and then X CONTACT DEALER and then would disappear with no code stored.Some codes for this issue in the past that were stored are P2068 Fuel level Sensor 2 high voltage and P0461 Fuel Level Sensor 1 Performance. This drove me insane and I hope this info is able to help.

For some of you a fuel sender/Pump change might fix the issue but for some of the unlucky ones this is the problem I have found on my Clubby.

Cheers

 

[lazyc]

Nice fault finding.

 

[krusing]

Hi Guys

I have been having the same issue with my HSV VE E3 Clubby for the last 4 years and the Holden dealership had 4 attempts to fix this issue over the 4 year period,Changed sender unit 3 times and 4th time gave up on my car..and costing money ...
After getting the X CONTACT DEALER message yesterday and fuel gauge dropping to empty, I Decided enough is enough and did extensive fault finding myself.(HV Sparky by trade)I cut inspection plate holes over my fuel tank so that I could gain access to fuel pump sender 1 and secondary sender 2 since I had to get the fuel pump changed a week ago and had to fork out $1200 .As most of you would know they have to drop the tank to get to the pump. Now that wont be an issue for me ever again and I can change it myself. Have a look at Pic showing modification.Note to all ,Never run your tank to empty,that is to the "Very low mark".I did it 3 times in the last 2 months and it killed the pump.
After gaining access to the fuel sender I tested the resistance on the sender 1 and 2 unit.1=55 ohms and 2 =155 ohms at half a tank.I filled up the tank to full and tested again 1 =39.8 ohms and sender 2= 39.1 ohms which is correct and proved the senders were working correctly.Just remember sensor no 2 sits higher in the second tank and drops first and after round about little more than half a tank reaching about 120 ohm reading sender 1 will start increasing from 40 and go up till 250 empty. Full equals both senders be at 40 ohms each and empty equals both senders be at 250 ohms each,I then proceeded to test the brown yellow stripe wire (Earth at sender to ECM which should read 0-0.3 ohms) I read 326 ohms which is incorrect.
That meant I either had a bad earth in the harness or bad connection to ECM or lastly a bad ECM internal low reference earth.
I then proceeded to remove the ECM which was a mission of its own.Tested Pin 31 internal ECM earth and pin 73 main ECM earth incomer and found 0.1 ohms which is correct. ECM OK.
That meant it had to be the harness and i tested from the front ECM plug pin 31 to the back of the fuel sender tank pin BrownYell and confirmed and found 327 ohms resistance which should be 0.1-0.3 ohms.I also tested sender 1 sensor purple wire and sender sensor 2 light Blue wire which read 0.2 ohms .They were OK ,It was the damn Brown/yellow (earth) from the back to the front of the ECM that was the issue.I then proceeded to connect a tone generator to trace the harness going through the car .I then found another PLUG .
There is a big clamped white plug behind the driver side RH foot kick panel.I put my tester back to the brown/yellow wire testing the continuity of the wire and the resistance dropped to 20 ohms. I noticed when I touched the plug the reading jumped all over the show.FOUND IT!!!()*%Holden Dealer&$^%#&.
I un-clipped the latch (black latch) and removed the plug.I then also un-clipped the back of the mounted plug and put them together while not mounted in the car, it clipped in and I tested again.The reading was 0.2 ohm (Brown.Yellow)I reinstalled the plug into its mount and smacked it a few times while checking resistance.ALL GOOD .Put my car back together and started the beast and PRESTO!.Problem solved. My tank showing over full and computer reading on dash saying 71 litres remaining,WOW, I haven't seen the gauge reading full for about 4 years and the reading saying 71 litres remaining.Took it for a ride and man it feels it strange seeing the gauge reading correctly after such a long time.

Well guys there you go ,I hope this helps if you are having the same problem as I did.Fuel always showed wrong and never full,every now and then X CONTACT DEALER and then would disappear with no code stored.Some codes for this issue in the past that were stored are P2068 Fuel level Sensor 2 high voltage and P0461 Fuel Level Sensor 1 Performance. This drove me insane and I hope this info is able to help.

For some of you a fuel sender/Pump change might fix the issue but for some of the unlucky ones this is the problem I have found on my Clubby.

Cheers

I had the "X CONTACT DEALER" with the gauge going to empty today come back from Latrobe Valley,
and the car still drove perfectly at 110 km/h with Cruise Control on,
Plugged the Autel in and there it was, DTC P0461
So I have a project for the week end.

Great instructions to investigate the fault.