I’ve recently got my brothers old car which he hasn’t used for a quite a while and there’s a problem with the fuel gauge. I’ve only topped it up with £10 petrol each time so not sure how the gauge performs when the tank is full. As the level gets quite low, the needle suddenly goes straight to nothing, shows an empty tank, but then it raises again to show a little petrol and then goes back to nothing and it keeps doing this for a little while but then it rests on completely empty but i know I have some petrol, just not sure how much which is very annoying. Any idea’s what this could and how to fix it?

Cheers,

Matt

how often are you putting a gallon and half in (approx thats all that you get for a tenner now), how many miles are you doing between the fill's? the gauge will be 'floating' with every turn you do, as the petrol is swishing around.

You've not mentioned what your car is btw. Try filling the tank up and keep an eye on the needle and your milage.

Well I put £10 in on Sunday and that got me about 7.5 litres. I travelled 40 miles and its on empty but it was doing the thing where it goes up and down constantly and those 40 miles were on a motorway. I put £15 in today and the needle didn’t go as far as it did when I put £10 in last week. Next time i visit a petrol station i’ll put a full tank in and keep an eye on the miles. I have a 1998 Ford Escort Encore by the way, what would you say is the mpg for it? Its got 80k on the clock.

MPG is a bigger variable than anything, it depends on so much!

The old petrol tank will work with a float, so if you dont put enough fuel in to move the Fuel Sender units position, it will always look empty, plus the fact that as you go up / down a hill, the float will move to show you erratic results.

From a 1998 Escort, I would estimate (Petrol) MPG to be around 26-28 mpg on an average maintained engine.

You would be best putting in a full tank for the next few fill ups, just to try and shunt the FSU around in case its seized.

I've started having a similar issue. A couple of weeks ago I left work, got in my car and started the engine, and it beeped, fuel light came on, and showed empty, needle barely moved. I'd only put £20 in the previous day and hadn't driven far, and at lunchtime that day it was showing a quarter of a tank, so couldn't understand what had happened to the fuel. However, I stopped and put another £20 in.

At the weekend it happened again. I was surprised that on driving from Leicester to Lincoln the needle hadn't moved much from the quarter mark, wondered why suddenly I was hardly using any fuel. Then, when I started the engine to go home, light came on, beeped, and showed empty. On this occasion it did climb slightly above the empty mark.

One thing after another at the moment - first the fuel gauge problem started, then last week I got a puncture and had to do a wheel change meaning I was late for work, at the weekend the fuel gauge issue happened again when I was leaving for home, the washers stopped working on the front screen around the same time (about to post about this in a new thread), then I had a blowout whilst driving home but before I'd had chance to have the previous puncture repaired meaning I had no spare and had to call the AA out.

Damian,

I had exactly the same issues. short version of the story was that I drove across a transit bumper at 70 MPH on the M20 one night. For the next few weeks, I could put a quarter of a tank but the needle wouldnt move. I had mis-aligned the FSU and so it wasnt reading properly. A few speed bumps at 30 mph later, and the car started behaving itself as I shook it back into place.

I would say, treat each issue seperately. the puncture couldnt really be related, as for the washers, I would advise there is a good chance this is due to a blocked pipe / pump / filter picking up the washer fluid, even better still it may just be a blocked jet. Again, I cant see the two being linked, so I would suggest treat them both seperately and dont worry about them together.

Wasn't linking them, just saying its all going wrong at the same time, coincidentally just before Christmas. I had to change a tyre this time last year due to a puncture that was too close to the wall to repair - its that new one that got the puncture last week, and also had to get all of my brakes done. A few years ago my head gasket and some other stuff went on my old Mondeo at Christmas, costing me about £1k to fix. This year its 2 tyres, the fuel gauge, the windscreen washer, and another that I forgot to mention that is a squealing when I change gear.

I wonder if its too late to ask Santa for a new car for Christmas :)

lol I would like to see Santa stick that one on his sleigh ;)

He won't need the sleigh, I'll let him drive it to me.

He'll have a hitch a ride back mind, so everyone else will have to wait for their prezzies.

He won't need the sleigh, I'll let him drive it to me.

He'll have a hitch a ride back mind, so everyone else will have to wait for their prezzies.

lol, you wouldnt even offer him a lift? now that is harsh! lol