Help! Fuel Guage Doesn't Work!

S

Sim_Simma

Senior member
I have a 2004 2.5 with a fuel guage problem. The guage is on bang empty with the light on constantly. Never moves at all no matter how much fuel is in the tank. Also the range counter just reads ----. Now I've learned that the fuel sender is usually at fault.
I have had the pump out and following the advice of my dad, with the senders working off resistance, he told me to short the two wires for each sender together and if the sender/s are at fault then when shorted the guage should read full.
So I did this with no result, nothing happened. So my dad pretty much took that as ruling out the senders. So next I removed the clocks and moved the needle and plugged it back in, it returned to zero, so the dial isn't jammed and the needle works so Im wondering what to try next.
I bought the tis discs off ebay with the wiring diagram disc as my dad wants to look at them. But I thought I may as well ask on here to see if anyone can help.
I'm not convinced that we've ruled out the senders is there any other way to test them?
Sorry for the essay but I want to outline my issue as clearly as possible, Thanks in advance!!
 
It does sound like a sender problem even though earthing out the lead didnt send the gauge to full deflection, I,de still plumb for a faulty sender, and its not a good idea to send a live feed up a wire into a microprocessor , you could destroy it
 
slick said:
It does sound like a sender problem even though earthing out the lead didnt send the gauge to full deflection, I,de still plumb for a faulty sender, and its not a good idea to send a live feed up a wire into a microprocessor , you could destroy it
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Haha my dad realised this after looking at some jag wiring diagrams and realised it goes to a module. I suppose he thought as the sender works the old fashioned way then the wiring may so as well. Is there any way to test the senders first though as there is 2 and if its the one on the passeger side according to TIS its built into the tank so you have to replace the tank.
 
Ie could I unplug the pump and do a resistance test with the multimeter? I know which pairs of pins are for each sender and If I take the pump out again I can get my hand in and move the sender while a second person holds the probes on the plug pins and see what readings I get if any. Would that give an accurate indication? Thanks again.
 
Sim_Simma said:
Ie could I unplug the pump and do a resistance test with the multimeter? I know which pairs of pins are for each sender and If I take the pump out again I can get my hand in and move the sender while a second person holds the probes on the plug pins and see what readings I get if any. Would that give an accurate indication? Thanks again.
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It may not be that accurate but it would indicate whether or not the sender is working
 
slick said:
Sim_Simma said:
Ie could I unplug the pump and do a resistance test with the multimeter? I know which pairs of pins are for each sender and If I take the pump out again I can get my hand in and move the sender while a second person holds the probes on the plug pins and see what readings I get if any. Would that give an accurate indication? Thanks again.
Click to expand...

It may not be that accurate but it would indicate whether or not the sender is working
Click to expand...
Cheers I'll try that next.
 
Wheres abouts are you based? If your local to East Sussex you try bits of a breaker I have.....sender or clocks. How much grief to remove the sender and or clocks?
 
foxy-stoat said:
Wheres abouts are you based? If your local to East Sussex you try bits of a breaker I have.....sender or clocks. How much grief to remove the sender and or clocks?
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Im in sheffield unfortunately but thanks a lot for the offer mate I really appreciate it :) although if you could give me a price on the sender I may take it off you if we discover thats the problem. Its not too hard to remove you just need to remove the pump which you can access under the car and is easy, then basically reach inside the tank and unclip it.
 
I managed to fix the problem without spending a penny, I'll open up another thread to show what I did as I'm sure the info would be useful to others who have the same problem :) thanks for your help people.
 
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