Low fuel Light playing up

Need technical Q/A then you're in the right place

Moderator: martauto

Post Reply
Grrrmachine
E30 Zone Wiki / Team Member
E30 Zone Wiki / Team Member
Posts: 8043
Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2008 11:00 pm
Location: Warsaw, Poland

Fri Mar 01, 2013 9:30 pm

Low fuel light came on with the needle pointing at just under 20 litres. In a panic I pulled into a forecourt, and was only able to fit 47 litres into a 63 litre tank - 16 remaining.

So what would make the light come on if the needle was pointing accurately? I thought the light was driven by the same sender.
Jim320i
E30 Zone News / COTM Team
E30 Zone News / COTM Team
Posts: 10627
Joined: Sun Oct 25, 2009 11:00 pm
Location: Leicestershire
Contact:

Fri Mar 01, 2013 9:33 pm

Have you checked the... :D
Grrrmachine
E30 Zone Wiki / Team Member
E30 Zone Wiki / Team Member
Posts: 8043
Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2008 11:00 pm
Location: Warsaw, Poland

Sat Mar 02, 2013 8:03 am

No mention of a low fuel light there!
milescook
E30 Zone Camper
E30 Zone Camper
Posts: 1283
Joined: Thu Jan 13, 2011 11:00 pm
Location: The 'bran of Cwm
Contact:

Sat Mar 02, 2013 8:21 am

Jim320i wrote:Have you checked the... :D
:D
The story so far... http://www.cookracing.co.uk/

Also please help the race budget by watching some videos :) https://www.youtube.com/cookracinguk
Grrrmachine
E30 Zone Wiki / Team Member
E30 Zone Wiki / Team Member
Posts: 8043
Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2008 11:00 pm
Location: Warsaw, Poland

Sat Mar 02, 2013 7:53 pm

Like I said, I'm reluctant to blame the senders because the fuel gauge is reading fine. I'm wondering if there's a chance for a short or something within the cluster itself.
Mo13
E30 Zone Regular
E30 Zone Regular
Posts: 722
Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2012 11:00 pm
Location: East London
Contact:

Sat Mar 02, 2013 8:14 pm

Jim320i wrote:Have you checked the... :D
:rolling:
User avatar
78gizmo
E30 Zone Regular
E30 Zone Regular
Posts: 265
Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2007 11:00 pm
Location: Torbay, South Devon

Sat Mar 02, 2013 8:19 pm

willnz wrote:The low fuel light is triggered by the float contacting the bottom of the level sensor which grounds it. It is on a different circuit altogether to the gauge so the brass nut has nothing to do with it.

It must be getting a gound from somewhere to switch on, so check the brown/grey wire is not damaged and grounding.

If you have dual senders, it is possible for the rh sender to be faulty and still for the gauge not to read empty as the other sender in series will keep the gauge from reading zero, so check the rh sender if this is the case.
This! Mine went the other way, gauge inop but light working perfectly, as he said the light is a diff circuit, so still suspect the RH sender.
User avatar
Brianmoooore
E30 Zone Team Member
E30 Zone Team Member
Posts: 49358
Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2005 11:00 pm

Sat Mar 02, 2013 9:48 pm

willnz wrote: I still have my money on the sender having a fault.
I'll have 50p on that, as well.
Grrrmachine
E30 Zone Wiki / Team Member
E30 Zone Wiki / Team Member
Posts: 8043
Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2008 11:00 pm
Location: Warsaw, Poland

Sat Mar 02, 2013 10:45 pm

Alright; I'll investigate the bloody sender. Seats up again...
Grrrmachine
E30 Zone Wiki / Team Member
E30 Zone Wiki / Team Member
Posts: 8043
Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2008 11:00 pm
Location: Warsaw, Poland

Sat Jan 04, 2014 11:29 am

Time to revisit this...

The low fuel light seems to be working fine; I dared to run the tank as low as I could, until I could actually hear fuel being slurped through the filter. The light came on when the car was that low, but the fuel guage was still reading 20 litres (63 guage and tank).

So my issue is that the guage needle isn't dropping as far as it should. It certainly swings all the way up when the tank is brimmed, and drops regularly, but seems to halt at the 20litre mark. So I presume the needle's getting stuck on something.
User avatar
Brianmoooore
E30 Zone Team Member
E30 Zone Team Member
Posts: 49358
Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2005 11:00 pm

Sat Jan 04, 2014 1:09 pm

Check out the resistance of the two level senders. With a full tank they should both read close to zero, and with an empty tank, just under 60 ohms each. They are series connected, so this presents a resistance of around 120 ohms to the gauge at empty.
Substitute a resistor for the senders, connected between the RH side plug and earth. 120 ohm should make the gauge read zero, 60 ohms half, 0 ohms full.
Post Reply