Fuel gauge fault found (1 Viewer)

[Dave 2000]

Hi I checked out the faulty gauge mentioned in my https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/365673-my-lc-80-thread.html and offer the following to help others in the future:

WARNING:
You are opening a fuel tank, once opened the fumes could be ignited from quite a distance away from the car, work outside away from any property, keep all doors/windows open and all sources of ignition at a safe distance.

The fuel gauge is located in the top of the fuel tank and very easy to access. Remove the second row seating 4 bolts (two of which are under the plastic covers seen when you lift the seat), then the step pads and lift the carpet pulling from the rear towards the front revealing an oval panel held in place by three screws, remove the panel and you will see the top of the gauge sender unit held down by eight 8mm bolts, unplug the connector block for the wires and remove the two pipes (flow and return) but blow off any dust on the top of the tank first so it does not get inside.

Now remove the bolts noting one also holds down a cable clamp and another other holds down a tank vent pipe. Lift the unit out complete turning it gently so the float and pick up pipe clear the opening, at this point it would be a good idea to have some cloth to hand, my car being diesel if this dripped on the carpets it will smell for weeks. Once the unit is clear you can move it to the the bench to start the examination. For safety's sake the first oval inspection plate you removed should be dropped over the tank opening to reduce fumes and prevent contamination.

On my unit it was clear from the pictures that the filter had seen better days and yet the tank looked clean inside, I then straightened the three tabs on the lid of the enclosure which held the sender unit and this exposed the resistance winding and as you can see it was toast, the windings are supposed to be tight together and mine seen to the left of the 'sweeper' arm are broken and spread apart so a new unit is needed. I could have soldered the wires at the top half together but they were so brittle that the slightest touch and they broke into little pieces. The small sensor also seen in the pics is the low fuel sensor for the warning light which works ok, so for the moment the filter is cleaned and the unit can go back in until a new one is sourced.

Refit is reversal of procedure but I would add a smear of rtv silicone to the gasket to ensure no leaks ect.

I could only upload three pics so left the inspection plate and tank cover out.

Items needed:

Flat screwdriver
Philips screwdriver
1/4 drive ratchet with small extension and 8mm socket
3/8 drive ratchet with small extension and 14mm socket
Small pliers
RTV sealant
1 hour of your time

Pic 1 shows the whole unit removed
Pic 2 shows the filter
Pic 3 shows the resistance winding and if you look closely you will see the broken wires

I hope this helps someone at a later date,

regards

Dave

 

[Dave 2000]

Someone contacted me a few weeks back to ask if the sender unit could be purchased separately from the pickup pipe and I cannot remember for the life of me who it was so hence a bump on this thread. The answer is yes it can. It seems the gasoline and diesel pickups are very different in fact some (all?) of the gasoline versions have a pump attached, but the sensors are separate and can be had for the princely sum of 125 euros including taxes here in Spain which equates to about 150 US dollars, of course I ordered my new one, part number is 83320 and also there was another messgae that flashed up which was 'see 84-C01', I am not sure what this meant because my spanglish is not very good but the parts guy said "es nada Y es sin problemo" which IIRC is 'it's nothing and no problem'. BTW the mesh filter is not available separtely according to the parts guy, mine will just have to be scrubbed and put back, having said that the tank inside is spotless.

So there you go whoever it was who needed to find out,

regards

Dave

 

[Dave 2000]

Just to bring you up to speed the tank sender has been replaced and it should be noted I had to bend the float arm so the gauge indication is a bit more accurate, the OEM sender appears to be set on the 'safe' side i.e. there is more in the tank than the gauge indicates however, my new sender told the fuel gauge the tank was empty

Going by my mileage calculations ect I had nearer a quarter of a tank so I bent the arm a little and assume I may have to do this a couple of times to get it close. Another very interesting point is the filter does not come with the sender it is sender only and not the pick up pipe/flange, I think the sender can be used in the petrol versions because only the pickups are different anyway I diverse, the filter in my original post was really cruddy and I cleaned it up a bit and although there was no problem getting fuel to the engine it just looked (and felt) bad. I could not get a new one so it went back in.

Low and behold when I took it out the filter was really clean, I can only put this down the the regular (about every third tankful) of injector cleaner because it did not look like this when I put it back whilst waiting for a new one to arrive.
Check out post number 1 and the picture of the filter and compare it with this one

regards

Dave

 

[jlg32281]

glad you fixed it

 

[Dave 2000]

glad you fixed it

Yeh thanks, not a hard job and not really top of the 'most important list' but it fitted in with my budget this month where anything more expensive would not have got done.

regards

Dave

 

[aaark35]

How often should I clean this fuel gage filter...I haven't open it for good 5 years where I travel 2500km a month

 

[aaark35]

And the fuel quality is at its worse in certain places. ...but hat's off to my 1hdt..