Fuel Gadge Prob

[miss-vx-purrrfect]

not sure if anyone is able to help me. but tonight i ran out of fuel thank god it was in my drive way lol (there is a first for everything)

but the reason for this post is that i want to know if anyone else has had a problem with their fuel gadge.. mine was showing that i had 1/4 tank left and the metre was saying 140km til empty.. it was that empty that i couldnt even get it into the carport..

thank god it wasnt anything major but if anyone has had similar problem and is able to tell me how to fix it your advise would be muchly appreciated.

cheers

[Ozzie]

I had the exact same problem when I first bought this VT,
Coming back from the car yard in melbourne and read a quater, hit a steep hill and stalled.

Cheapest and easiest fix for me was to take the cluster out and wind the needle on the fuel gauge to under what it was. so now when mine says quater theres actually half in there. funny thing is that when the tanks full it actually sits dead on full.
Holden seemed to have put the pump toward the front of the tank and sensor toward the rear so when your car is on an up angle it reads over what is in the tank (1 quater)

Probebly a good idea to try to keep it around half full or more, doesnt do the injectors and pump too much good running it out of fuel

[Jesterarts]

Had the exact same issue with my VX... went into holden, had the fuel guage re calibrated... cost like 20 bux...

But yeah... the fuel pump in these cars is cooled by the fuel... so running out of fuel is not healthy for it.

Also discovered that the sweet spot for getting it going again was like 10L.... and i only had a 5litre fuel can..

GOod luck with it...

[holdenvtman1123]

DO NOT BEND YOU FUEL GAUGE NEEDLE. Do not replace instrument panel. The instrument assembly supplies a 12 volt reference voltage and an earth circuit to the fuel gauge sender unit. The fuel sender provides a resistance value to the instrument assembly based on its position relative to the fuel level. The fuel sender resistance will vary between 37.5 ohms and 253.3 ohms from no fuel in the tank to full tank. Do not bend the float arm to rectify this problem To rectify. fill tank completly. disconnect the body wirng harness/fuel tank harness connection, and with a calibrated digital multimeter, measure the fuel levelsender resistence. refer above. NOTE you will need to prob the tan and black/yellow terminals. if sender resistence is less than 246.7 ohms, remove fuel tank and replace pump and sender unit assembly. If sender unit resistence is equal or greater than 246.7 ohms, the fuel gauge requires recalebration via tech 2 (Holden Has This maybe your mechanic too). tech 2 will need to be told that the tank is now full. Once the fuel gauge calibration has completed, if the gauge pointer still does not reach full(or within 1/2 pointer width) replace the instruments.

[Ozzie]

DO NOT BEND YOU FUEL GAUGE NEEDLE. Do not replace instrument panel. The instrument assembly supplies a 12 volt reference voltage and an earth circuit to the fuel gauge sender unit. The fuel sender provides a resistance value to the instrument assembly based on its position relative to the fuel level. The fuel sender resistance will vary between 37.5 ohms and 253.3 ohms from no fuel in the tank to full tank. Do not bend the float arm to rectify this problem To rectify. fill tank completly. disconnect the body wirng harness/fuel tank harness connection, and with a calibrated digital multimeter, measure the fuel levelsender resistence. refer above. NOTE you will need to prob the tan and black/yellow terminals. if sender resistence is less than 246.7 ohms, remove fuel tank and replace pump and sender unit assembly. If sender unit resistence is equal or greater than 246.7 ohms, the fuel gauge requires recalebration via tech 2 (Holden Has This maybe your mechanic too). tech 2 will need to be told that the tank is now full. Once the fuel gauge calibration has completed, if the gauge pointer still does not reach full(or within 1/2 pointer width) replace the instruments.

wtf??? LOL

Who would literally bend it?
I meant move it to under what it reads.
Also Ive done it muself without any problems otherwise I wouldnt recommend it!

^^ Pointless post to gain points?

[holdenvtman1123]

they rectified this problem in 98. this just shows how to test the sender. it is not a poitless post to gain points. im just trying to be helpful

[Jesterarts]

Play nice....

Ozzie, if you just wind the needle back, wouldn't the DTE and the fuel light not come on at the right time?

From my understanding of what you said, if you just wind the needle back, if doesn't change the fuel reading being wrong, just the needle will be pointing to roughly the right spot. So i am a bit sketch on that as a fix... as it's only really a band aid solution.

As i said... 20 bux, holden, tech 2... done. And this coming from me... someone who dodges holden like the plague.

Cheers

[Ozzie]

Yeah your right Jesters but this problem is worse....

The fuel light and beep dont work because the gauge still reads a quater.
Winding it back say quater of a quater only winds the needle reading back,
The actual fuel reading is in the ecu so that side of it doesnt change,

Pretty much all ur doin is for your own visual aspect, It doesnt change the internal reading, just lets you think that theres less in the tank then what there actually is.

[Jesterarts]

^^^ Cool, thought so.

Cheers.

[holdenvtman1123]

if the procedure doesnt work above u need a new sender