T4 DIY & How to.

[Transporter]

Making new keys incl. transponder

Pinched from MK4 section.

http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/foru...tml#post810954

[MadMentalist]

Interesting fuel gauge issue...

This is for a 2.5 petrol AET engine but should be the same for most VAG vehicles that use a mechanical fuel sender unit attached to the fuel lift pump.

My fuel gauge has not worked since I bought the van (roughly 6 months ago), the other day the inevitable happened and I ran out of fuel.
So deciding it was high time to fix it up as I had an empty tank, well somewhere under 5 litres to get me home, and the flooring of the cab up I had a good look at it yesterday.
Initial testing of the cables showed I had continuity, so a broken cable wasn't the problem. After removal of the fuel pump (there is a handy inspection hole just in-between the seats, 3 screws to open the inspection plate then undo the two fuel pipes, marking in and out, the 4 pin connector and a big ring to seal the top of the tank then undo the pump turning anti clockwise to release) I set about checking the fuel gauge sender.
Looking innocently OK...


Initial checks were intermittent with pretty bad continuity between the two cables let alone a good ohms reading so a bit of playing around and BINGO, got it... A dry joint between one of the sensor cables and the resistor board. Out came my old soldering iron, a gas one so I had to be a bit careful! After re-soldering the joint everything was back working and I was getting good differences in ohms readings.
Empty tank: 277.9 ohms

Half tank: 103.3 ohms

Full tank: 36.1 ohms


And a picture of my bad soldering... I'm not an electronics tech honest!


After filling the tank the fuel gauge read full for the first time I just wonder how many people have had one replaced all for a dry joint! I hope this helps others and at least its worth a look if your fuel gauge doesn't read correctly...

[jets]

Well done, but I can't see the pictures.

[gecko2k]

wow. mate. I would have **** my pants doi8ng soldering near the fuel tank. haha.

btw you got pm!

[MadMentalist]

Well done, but I can't see the pictures.

Yeah, not sure what happened, the pics are on flickr, if you right click you can view in new page...

must be something to do with not having a picture file name?

Pictures updated... Used photobucket, flickr sucks!

[MadMentalist]

18 Months later and my fuel gauge is still working perfectly...