VZ Fuel Gauge Problem

[Ghost]

When I bought my wagon the bloke said that the fuel gauge was off because of the sender and when he called Holden they wanted to charge an arm and a leg to put a revised sender in so instead of getting it he decided to attach a hose to the fuel pump so its sucking the fuel from the bottom of the tank and when I bought it it was at the 1/4 mark and he said the fuel wouldn't get me home because its near empty when I fueled it up it still had 30 litres in the tank so yeah that's my story

 

[Ghost]

I may be wrong here but I think with a bit of play around with a tech 2 if you tell the cluster that the fuel tank is smaller than it really is you might be able to trick the cluster into giving you a correct reading

 

[Cava454]

^^ sounds like lots of piss farting around.

Where there any recalls on the 2005 vz ss ute. Maybe mine missed out? If so could I take it in a get it done?

 

[Fayetality]

Hey apart from mine always having the fuel gauge inconsistencies as mentioned my car comes up with fuel gauge error alert a lot. Basically after i turn the key the fuel gauge doesnt respond/lift and the car wont start. this has gone on for a little while so much so ive now installed a button to break the fuse and reset the car.

I dont know a lot about this kind of thing but would it be worth buying a new sensor/gauge or is it more likely to be a problem with the ECU? I'd assume the fuel gauge would be cheaper haha. I'm basically just trying to get it ready to sell as ive bought a new car but dont wanna sell someone a dodgy car and dont wanna spend thousands on it or hundreds to find out.
any help would be greatly appreciated :beer chug:

 

[admiral05]

The fuel gauge has to be recalibrated by the owner in the VZ series as you have to go through 500litres of fuel to recalibrate it. Its all in the user manual for the car. I'm having dramas with the fuel gauge and digital readout out going to empty then back up everytime i drive my vz! Been told it should just be sender unit, but is the pump and sender unit really one thing in the vz??

 

[wannaeatyourbrains]

I had this problem just now.

In my case, it was caused by the way the filter folds inside the fuel sender unit.

I just put a new pump in the car. Thought I cleaned the dirt of ages out well. But very shortly, fuel gauge started misbehaving. Had power to the dash, but the gauge was giving inaccurate readings, or just sitting on E with the low fuel warning all the time.

While I was investigating, I heard the pump whining.

I pulled the sender out and popped the bottom off it. You lever the pressure regulator up and off with a screwdriver, then pop the two clips on the side and pull the tank off the bottom.

The part of the filter between where it folds and the inlet mouth on the pump had become clogged. Some tiny bits of dirts remaining in the fuel tank had made a beeline for there. The fold restricts the pump from using the rest of the filter, so even a tiny bit clogged that area.

Cleaned the filter. Problem solved.

 

[Fu Manchu]

You are amazing.

 

[wannaeatyourbrains]

Ha ha shortage of moolah breeds commitment, in my case. That would have only been the 100th time I pulled that bugger out lately.

It was interesting to me how a problem with the pump messed with the gauge. I didn't test it, but the pump doing overtime must have affected the resistance of the wires through that plug on top of the sender.

 

[wannaeatyourbrains]

You can't believe it chaps, I only drove around for a couple of days and the gauge started misbehaving again. Inaccurate readings, all over the place. This time I could not hear the pump. The engine started to starve for fuel.

I took a few pictures. The blockage is certainly the problem, cause as soon as you clear it you are back in action all round.

I reckon a new pump in a new tank would be good and fine. The tank and filter would dirty at the same rate, and not upset things.

But you put a new pump in an old tank, or get some crap in your new tank, the suction pulls it straight to the pump mouth and blocks it. Like so:

That stuff is blocking the pump mouth. You can see it is only sucking fuel shy of the fold.

A lot of it is kind of fluff. I wonder whether some of it came off the new filter? I have that Icon pump off Ebay.

Just in case, I put another filter back on I had cleaned up off one of the other senders I scavenged. It is not fibrous at all, although really they seem identical.

That sure as heck fixed the issue for now, anyway.

Noticed the new and original tanks are different. I don't know if it is anything to with it.

New is like this. I went with new again cause it certainly looks better with this extra screen around it.

My original pumps have a tank that lacks that screen. Maybe they came like that, or maybe someone has pulled them off in the past, although I can't imagine it. If it happens again I am going back to the old tanks.

Finally, I noticed that it is easy to twist the electric plug at the top, so it might be wise to make sure that is straight when you reassemble.

Twisted, as I found it when I pulled it off this time:

Now straight. Couldn't hurt to make it right.

Needless to say, I extra tubbed out the tank this time, and I carefully filtered the fuel I siphoned before I added it back in. Although I tried to be clean previously. I just mean obviously a bit of extra care here saves some grief. Clearly, you don't want dirt in your fuel tank, cause the old VZ is pretty fussy.

Gave it a new coat of paint too, in the hopes it might treat me better. Police certainly are.

 

[wannaeatyourbrains]

I solved the problem for good by changing the retarded filter with the fold for this one. Trust me, you will love it if your fuel gauge is pissing you off.

9.87AU $ 7% OFF|Fuel Pump Filter Strainer 952-0006;23217-46090 For Lexus Gs300 Gs400 Gs430 Is300 Ls430 Rx300 Sc430;toyota Paseo Pickup - Fuel Pumps - AliExpress

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