Fuel Gauge Only Reads Half Way

[millerj1974]

Every time I fill up with diesel the fuel gauge only reads half full even though I have filled the tank, or at least think I have as it only seems to take about £20 - £25 between fuel gauge reading empty and the pump cutting off during filling, can anybody explain.

Am I running on half a tank when I think its empty, has the tank been made smaller for some reason or is the sender unit defective on the tank?

[daveblueozzie]

Could be just a bad earth on the sender unit on top of the fuel tank.there is a hatch behind the drivers seat under the carpet that lets you get to the top of the tank and then you can clean or fix the earth.

[Bongoplod]

I agree,new earth reqd to unit

Brian

[tallbongo]

There is a very useful fact sheet telling you how to diagnose if the fuel sender unit is working and how to fix a bad earth if this is the cause.

If you cannot use the method in the fact sheet you can earth to the flange of the fuel tank by putting a self tapping screw into it. I had to do this as I could not remove the screws as indicated in the fact sheet.



edit: link to fact sheet: http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/member ... sender.pdf

[millerj1974]

cheers, I will give that a go. Just out of interest how much value in diesel should the tank hold as £20 seems a bit light.

[nfn]

The tank holds around 60 litres I think -- someone on the forum will know. My guess is that you are not driving far enough between fill-ups to ever get the tank much below 3/4 full, because the gauge is falsely reading very low, and you're quite understandably getting paranoid.

[2sticks]

The published capacity of the Bongo fuel tank is 65 litres or 14.3 gallons.
Approximately, 5 litres of fuel cannot be used due to the guard filter below
the fuel delivery pipework.

Approximately 5 litres of useable fuel are available when the fuel gauge is
reading zero, or when the fuel indicator lamp on post 1998 Bongos is fully
illuminated. This fuel should not be considered as a reserve as it's simply
there to allow for gauge errors; and to ensure that you do not run out of
fuel completely when the gauge reads zero, therefore a safe value from full
to the brim is 55 litres or 12.1 gallons.

[wormey]

I'm not sure I have a low fuel light on mine, it's a 1999 model. I will have to read the manual.