Fuel Gauge

pikecrazy · Unread post by **pikecrazy** » 17 Nov 2005, 16:25

When the ignition is switched on the fuel needle seems to be going up and down erratically.

Any ideas

Unread post by **Peter.N.** » 18 Nov 2005, 09:26

I dont know about these modern cars but in the olden days there was a variable resistor in the tank connected to a float and the resistor became 'noisey' intermittently making contact. There also used to be a voltage regulator that supplied the gauges that could go intermittent...but as I say that was in the days when you could understand how cars worked!

RStacey · Unread post by **RStacey** » 18 Nov 2005, 13:22

Is it just the fuel guage or are there any other abnormal electrics?

pikecrazy · Unread post by **pikecrazy** » 18 Nov 2005, 13:54

RStacey wrote:Is it just the fuel guage or are there any other abnormal electrics?

Just the fuel gauge nothing else.....

It doesn't matter if it is stood still or moving it moves about 15mm up and down , it's really annoying me now

Anymore ideas ?

Roscoe · Unread post by **Roscoe** » 19 Nov 2005, 09:04

My BX TZD was doing that - the gauge going to full, then down to half and back to full, couldn't rely on it at all and finally it just bottomed out and wouldn't move. Pulled the sender out of the tank and the metallic eching on the circuit board had started to come off and was cauht on the float, so it couldn't move. I cleaned it up as best I could and it worked fine, but only down to a quarter tank and after that it wouldn't register as the foil was gone. Swapped it with the one from my parts car and it's 100% now. Not sure if the Xantia TD has the same sendor set up, but Haynes should show you where it is/how to remove it. If it is the same, has three wires from the plug on it - one is earth, the other two are the variable earth from the float and the 'empty' solid earth for the light on the fuel gauge. If you bridge across them or provide a solid earth, you will be able to see if the gauge goes to full and remains still.

citronut · Unread post by **citronut** » 19 Nov 2005, 09:55

the BX and XANT are about the same in that department,under the rear seat base you will find two large plastic lids,under one is the sendor and the other is fuel pick up
regards malcolm

PicassoPigeon · Unread post by **PicassoPigeon** » 19 Nov 2005, 16:03

Can you fill the tank from any of these. Would be quicker to fill from here with my veg oil, takes some time with a funnel.

AndersDK · Unread post by **AndersDK** » 19 Nov 2005, 16:06

gav425 wrote:Can you fill the tank from any of these. Would be quicker to fill from here with my veg oil, takes some time with a funnel.

No - unless you remove the tank sender unit - or the fuel pick-up & filter assembly. But I guess a quick glance here could give you some ideas for a modification to do this.