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Fuel gauges - argh!
phantom - April 19th, 2005 at 07:10 PM

The topic which should not be bought up in VW circles....

I found out (rudely) today that the gauge in my recently acquired buggy is not reading correctly....even though it said a half tank, it was empty.

I had hassles with my 69 bug gauge last year, ordered another sender (at the tank), fixed the wiring, and now its not too bad. Kinda.

But.....I knew the year of the car then, as apparently the senders are different for different models.

The buggy has stuff-knows-what year tank in it.....I get movement at the gauge and everything but obviously it is reading wrong. I'm used to the old system of driving a certain amoujnt of miles and then making sure you fill up.....but...what if my speedo is out?!

Any other suggestions, as to how I can get something working? Should I be inspecting friends petrol tanks and comparing them to the buggy, to find a similar model, then taking that as the year?

pod - April 19th, 2005 at 07:38 PM

pull the sender out and bend the float arm up so it reads empty with say $5 worth of petrol still in it ,thats what i did in my beetle:thumb

~air fooled~ - April 19th, 2005 at 09:12 PM

now thats a farkin good idea, if you have that type of sender though!

ClassicVW(pacific) - April 19th, 2005 at 09:42 PM

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helterskelter400 - April 19th, 2005 at 09:49 PM

yep guages are over rated. round town i gotta 5l fuel cont. on bigger off road trips, 10l/20l. hahaha

Mad Manx - April 21st, 2005 at 07:45 AM

I recon motorbike style would be the go..... with a little reserve tap like the old splitty beetles had- all mechanical then so nothing to fault or wear out.

Peter Leonard - April 21st, 2005 at 10:34 AM

hey, on a similar topic, what's the 'r' stand for on the fuel gauge? i always thought it was 'reserve', like it was a relic from when it may have once had a reserve tank, but i'm starting to think it now means 'refuel' :D
also my sender works intermittently, but having priced new ones, i'm happy to carry mr springer around with me. it's great. i can drive for ten minutes and end up with more fuel than I started with. contacts are clean:duh

72TWINCAB - April 21st, 2005 at 05:27 PM

What's the going price for a fuel sender?

57kombi - April 21st, 2005 at 05:32 PM

I bought a new one last week , its the arm type.
Cost me $70.00

Cheers
Dave

Peter Leonard - April 21st, 2005 at 05:32 PM

i was told about 120 bucks :duh i think it depends on the year model/type

57kombi - April 22nd, 2005 at 03:42 PM

Or whos charging too much????


Cheers
Dave

Peter Leonard - April 22nd, 2005 at 06:09 PM

what kind of fuel sender was it? kombi? year?
mine was for a 76 beetle... still i would almost not have balked at 70 bucks. intermittent fuel readings have kinda sufficed so far :D