Xantia 1.9D fuel Guage

basher998 · Post by **basher998** » 05 Feb 2008, 12:13

Hi,
Can anyone help?
My brother in law has a Xantia 1.9 TD and just recently the fuel guage has started reading empty when there is plenty of fuel in it,the fuel "low" light even comes on,now i think its poss a knackered sender,has anyone had a similar problem?
Cheers

Post by **CitroJim** » 05 Feb 2008, 19:05

Hi Basher,

Welcome to the FCF

The frst port of call has to be to check the connections to the fuel gauge sender unit under the big round plastic bung under the O/S back seat.

Otherwise, the sender would appear to be duff, possibly just a punctured float.

It is easy to get to. Just carefully unscrew the big threaded ring on top of the tank that surrounds the sender unit and fuel lines. It is clearly visible and easily reached after removal of the aforesaid plastic bung.

Do you run the car on veg at all? This sometimes plays havoc with the sender unit...

XantiaMan · Post by **XantiaMan** » 05 Feb 2008, 19:41

citrojim wrote: Do you run the car on veg at all? This sometimes plays havoc with the sender unit...

Mine does, and the gauge is wildly inaccurate! Are you saying it has damaged the sender or the different viscosity affects the reading?

Post by **CitroJim** » 05 Feb 2008, 20:12

XantiaMan583 wrote: Are you saying it has damaged the sender or the different viscosity affects the reading?

I don't know Gareth as I've not personally looked at a sender unit. I did wonder if the veg is conductive and did a quick test on some olive oil and found it a great insualtor but I could not try it on ordinary veg as we don't have a spot of the stuff in the house; we're strictly 100% olive oil here

It may be attacking the float and making it sink or it may attack the resistive element in some way as it's usually fully exposed to the fuel. The last time I saw a gauge playing up on veg, the gauge would read low for a while after startup and then fall to nothing. That would suggest the float is Ok and it's electrical.

It is a shame none but very early Xantias had a water in fuel sensor

If they had, and it came on very regularly or stayed on all the time when running veg, this would indicate the veg is conductive.

I don't think density or viscosity is the issue here although over the course of a journey, the veg in the tank will warm appreciably due to warm veg being returned from the pump after heating in both the filter and pump itself. Warming it may affect its conductivity possibly, especially if its not 100% moisture-free, the normal reason an oil becomes conductive.

basher998 · Post by **basher998** » 06 Feb 2008, 23:11

Thanks for the reply,he hasnt had the car more than a couple of weeks and it was owned by an old couple so i dont think it has been run on Veg oil,it was fine then dropped a little then a little more until it just stopped reading,this happened over about 10 mins.

bumperman · Post by **bumperman** » 07 Feb 2008, 21:37

My Xantia(see profile below) has a pessimistic fuel gauge/warning light and I am running on 100% derv(so no possibility of system damage from veggie oil), until I get around to making my own bio fuel.

John

DickieG · Post by **DickieG** » 12 Feb 2008, 20:18

The sender unit on Xantia's is a weakness, the original one on my Activa would slowly cause the gauge to drop to zero. Fitting a new sender unit sorted it out.

XantiaMan · Post by **XantiaMan** » 12 Feb 2008, 20:36

DickieG wrote:The sender unit on Xantia's is a weakness, the original one on my Activa would slowly cause the gauge to drop to zero. Fitting a new sender unit sorted it out.

Any ideas how much Richard? Getting fed up with putting fuel in mine then watching it drop 10 minutes later!

basher998 · Post by **basher998** » 23 Feb 2008, 23:59

Solved the problem!,
This is weird!!!!
Took the Sender out and as we tipped the diesel out of it a Slug came out!! yeah thats right a homeless Snail!
Put it all back together(minus the Slug)and it works fine.Very very strange,cant explain where it came from.